^^SffS^ESg 

EX  tlBRJS 


EXAMINATION 

OF  THE  PASSAGES  IN  THE 

NEW  TESTAMENT, 


QUOTED  FROM  THE  OLD  AND  CALLED   PROPHECIES   COW 

v 

CERNING 

Jesus  Christ. 


TO    WHICH    IS    PREFIXED, 

fc-        An  ESSAY  on  ]}REAM, 

Shewing  by  what  operation  of  the  mind  a  Dream  is  produced  in  sleep / 
and  applying  the  same  to  tte  account  of  Dreams  in  the 

New  Testament ;    * 

With  an  APPENDIX  containing  my 

Private  Thoughts  of  a  Future  Statey 

And  REMARKS  on  the  Contradictory  Doctrine  in  the  Books  of 
MATTHEW  and  MARK*  . 


BY  THOMAS  PAINE* 


NEW-YORK : 
PRINTED  FOR  THE  AUTHOR, 


To  the  Ministers  and  Preachers  of  all 
Denominations  of  Religion. 


IT  is  the  duty  of  eviery  man,  as  far  as  his  ability  extends,  to 
detect  and  expose  delusion  and  error.  But  nature  has  not  given. 
to  every  one  a  talent  for  the  purpose;  and  among  those  to  whom 
such  a  talent  is  given,  there  is  often  a  want  of  disposition  or  of 
courage  to  do  it. 

The  world,  or  more  properly  speaking,  that  small  part  of  it 
called  Christendom,  or  the  Christian  world,  has  besn  amused  for 
more  than  a  thousand  years  with  accounts  of  Prophecies  in  the 
Old-Testament,  about  the  coming  of  the  person  called  Jesus 
Christ,  and  thousands  of  sermons  have  been  preached,  and  vol 
umes  written,  to  make  man  believe  it. 

In  the  following  treatise  1  have  examined  all  the  passages  in  the 
INew-Testament,  quoted  from  the  old  and  called  prophecies  con 
cerning  Jesus  Christ,  and  I  find  no  such  thing  as  a  prophecy  of  any 
such  person,  and  I  deny  there  are  any.  The  passages  all  relate 
to  circumstances,  the  Jewish  nation  was  in  at  the  time  they  were 
written  or  spoken,  and  not  to  any  thing  that  was,  or  was  not,  to 
happen  in  the  world  several  hundred  years  afterwards  ;  and  I  have 
shewn  what  the  circumstances  were,  to  which  the  passages  apply 
or  refer.  I  have  given  chapter  and  verse  for  every  thing  I  have 
said,  and  have  not  gone  out  of  the  books  of  the  Old  and  New- 
Testament  for  evidence,  that  the  passages  are  not  prophecies  ot 
the  person  called  Jesus  Christ. 

The  prejudice  of  unfounded  belief  often  degenerates  into  the 
prejudice  of  custom,  and  becomes  at  last,  rank  hypocrisy.  When 
men  from  custom  or  fashion  or  ary  worldly  motive  profess,  or  pre 
tend  to  believex  what  they  do  not  believe,  nor  can  give  any  reason 
for  believing,  they  unship  the  helm  of  their  morality,  and  being 
no  longer  honest  to  their  own  minds,  they  feel  no  moral  difficulty 
in  being  unjust  to  others.  It  is  from  the  influence  of  this  vice,  hy 
pocrisy,  that  we  see  so  many  church  and  meeting  going  profes 
sors  and  pretenders  to  religion,  so  full  of  trick  and  deceit  in  their 
dealings,  and  so  loose  in  the  performance  of  their  engagements, 
that  they  are  not  to  be  trusted  further  than  the  laws  of  the  country 
will  bin  dthem.  Morality  has  no  hold  on  their  minds,  no  restraint 
on  their  actions. 


DEFACE. 

One  set  of  preachers  make  salvation  to  consist  in  believing. 
They  fell  their  congregations  that  if  they  believe  in  Christ  their 
sins  shall  be  forgiven.  This,  in  the  first  place,  is  an  encourage 
ment  (o  sin,  in  a  similar  manner,  as  when  a  prodigal  young  fellow 
is  told  his  father  will  pay  all  his  debts,  he  runs  into  debt  the  faster 
and  becomes  the  more  extravagant ;  Daddy,  says  he,pays  all,and  on 
he  goes.  Just  so  in  the  other  case,  Christ  pays  all  and  on  goes  the 
sinner. 

In  the  next  place,  the  doctrine  these  men  preach  is  not  true. 
The  New-Testament  rests  itself  for  credibility  and  testimony  on 
what  are  called  prophecies  in  the  Old-Testament,  of  the  person 
called  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  there  are  no  such  thing  as  prophecies 
of  any  such  person  in  the  Old-Testament,  the  New-Testament  is 
a  forgery  of  the  Councils  of  Nice  and  Laodocia  and  the  faith 
founded  thereon,  delusion  and  falsehood.* 

Another  set  of  preachers  tell  their  congregations  that  God  pre 
destinated  and  selected  from  all  eternity,  a  certain  number  to  be 
saved,  and  a  certain  number  to  be  damned  eternally.  If  this  were 
true  the  day  of  Judgment  is  VAST,  their  preaching  is  in  vain,  and 
they  had  better  work  at  some  useful  calling  for  their  livelihood. 

This  doctrine  also  like  the  former  hath  a  direet  tendency  to  de 
moralize  mankind.  Can  a  bad  man  be  reformed  by  telling  him 
that  if  he  is  one  of  those  who  was  decreed  to  be  damned  before  he 
was  born  his  reformation  will  do  him  no  good;  and  if  he  was  de 
creed  to  be  saved,  he  will  be  saved  whether  he  believes  it  or  not, 
for  this  is  the  result  of  the  doctrine.  Such  preaching  and  such 
preachers  do  injury  to  the  moral  world.  They  had  better  be  at 
the  plough. 

As  in  my  political  works  my  motive  and  object  have  been  to 
give  man  an  elevated  sense  of  his  own  character,  and  to  free  him 
from  the  slavish  and  superstitious  absurdity  of  monarchy  and  hered 
itary  government,  so  in  my  publications  on  religious  subjects  my 
endeavours  have  been  directed  to  bring  man  to  a  right  use  of  the 
reason  that  God  has  given  him,  to  impress  on  him  the  great  prin 
ciples  of  divine  morality,  justice  mercy  and  a  benevolent  disposi 
tion  to  all  men,  and  to  all  creatures,  and  to  inspire  in  him  a  apirit  of 
trust,  confidence,  and  consolation  in  his  creator,  unshackled  by  the 
fables  of  books  pretending  fo  be  the  word  of  God. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 

*  The  councils  of  Nice  and  Laodocia  were  held  about  350 
years  aiter  the  time  Chris^  is  said  to  have  lived,  and  the  books, 
that  now  compose  the  New-Testament,  were  then  voted  for  by 
YEAS  and  NAYS,  as  we  now  vote  a  law.  A  great  many  that  were 
offered  had  a  majority  of  nays  and  were  rejected.  This  is  tke 
way  the  New-Testament  came  into  being. 


INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER. 


AS  a  great  deal  is  said  in  the  New  Testament  about  dreams, 
it  is  first  necessary  to  explain  the  nature  of  dream,  and  to  shew  by 
what  operation  of  the  mind  a  dream  is  produced  during  sleep. 
When  this  is  understood  we  shall  be  the  better  enabled  to  judge 
whether  any  reliance  can  be  placed  upon  them ;  and  consequently, 
whether  the  several  matters  in  the  New  Testament  related  of 
dreams  deserve  the  credit  which  the  writers  of  that  book  and 
priests  and  commentators  ascribe  to  them. 


An  ESS  AY  on  Dream. 


l 


N  order  to  understand  the  nature  of  dream,  or  of  that  which 
passes  in  ideal  vision  during  a  state  of  sleep,  it  is  first  necessary  to 
understand  the  composition  and  decomposition  of  the  human  mind* 

The  three  great  faculties  of  the  mind  are  IMAGINATION,  JUDG 
MENT  and  MEMORY.  Every  action  of  the  mind  comes  under  one 
or  other  of  these  faculties.  In  a  state  of  wakeiulness,  as  in  the 
day  time,  these  three  faculties  are  all  active  ;  but  that  is  seldom 
the  sase  in  sleep,  and  never  perfectly  ;  and  this  is  the  cause  that 
our  dreams  are  not  so  regular  and  rational  as  our  wukihg  thoughts. 

The  seat  of  that  collection  of  powers  or  faculties  that  constitute 
what  is  called  the  mind  is  in  the  brain.  There  is  not,  and  cannot 
be,  any  visible  demonstration  of  this  anatomically,  but  accidents 
happening  to  living  persons,  shew  it  to  be  so.  An  injury  done  to 
the  brain  by  a  fracture  of  the  scull  will  sometimes  change  a  wise 


2  AN  ESSAY 

man  into  a  childish  idiot ;  a  being  without  a  mkid.  But  so  care 
ful  has  nature  been  of  that  sanctum  sanctorum  of  man,  the  brain, 
that  of  all  the  external  accidents  to  which  humanity  is  subjecf, 
this  happens  the  most  seldom.  But  we  often  see  it  happening  by 
long  and  habitual  intemperance. 

Whether  those  three  faculties  occupy  distinct  apartments  of  the 
brain,  is  known  only  to  that  almighty  power  that  formed  and  or" 
ganised  it.  We  can  see  the  external  effects  of  muscular  motion 
in  all  the  members  ot  the  body,  though  its  primum  mobile,  or  first 
moving  cause,  is  unknown  to  man.  Our  external  motions  are 
sometimes  the  effect  of  intention,  and  sometimes  not.  If  we  are 
sitting  and  intend  to  rise,  or  standing  and  intend  to  sit,  or  to  walk, 
the  limbs  obey  that  intention  as  if  they  heard  the  order  given.  But 
we  make  a  thousand  motions  every  day,  and  that  as  well  waking 
as  sleeping,  that  have  no  prior  intention  to  direct  them.  Each 
member  acts  as  if  it  had  a  will,  or  mind  of  its  own.  Man  governs 
the  whole  when  he  please  to  govern,  but  in  the  interims  the  se 
veral  parts,  like  little  suburbs,  govern  themselves  without  consult 
ing  the  sovereign. 

But  all  these  motions,  whatever  be  the  genrating  cause,  are  ex 
ternal  and  visible.  But  with  respect  to  the  brain,  no  occular  ob 
servation  can  be  made  upon  it.  All  is  mystery  ;  all  is  darkness, 
in  that  womb  of  thought. 

Whether  the  brain  is  a  mass  of  matter  in  continual  rest ;  whe 
ther  it  has  a  vibrating  pulsative  motion,  or  a  heaving  and  falling 
motion  like  matter  in  fermentation  ;  whether  different  parts  of  the 
brain  have  different  motions  according  to  the  faculty  that  is  em 
ployed,  be  it  the  imagination,  the  judgment,  or  the  memory,  man 
knows  nothing  of.  He  knows  not  the  cause  of  his  own  wit.  His 
own  brain  conceals  it  from  him. 

Comparing  invisible  by  visible  things,  as  metaphysical  can  some 
times  be  compared  to  physical  things,  the  operations  of  these  dis- 


ON  DREAM,  3 

tinct  and  several  faculties  have  some  resemblance  to  the  median* 
i-sm  of  a  watch.  The  main  spring,  which  puts  all  in  motion,  cor 
responds  to  the  imagination  ;  the  pendulum,  or  balance,  which 
corrects  and  regulates  that  motion,  corresponds  to  the  judgment, 
and  the  hand  and  dial,  like  the  memory,  record  the  operations. 

Now  in  proportion  as  these  several  faculties  sleep,  slumber,  or 
keep  awake,  during  the  continuance  of  a  dream,  in  that  propor 
tion  will  the  dream  be  reasonable  or  frantic,  remembered  or  for 

gotten. 

If  there  is  any  faculty  in  mental  man  that  never  sleeps  it  is  that 
volatile  thing  the  imagination.  The  case  is  different  with  the 
judgment  and  memory.  The  sedate  and  sober  constitution  of  the 
judgment  easily  disposes  it  to  rest,  and  as  to  the  memory  it  records 
in  silence  and  is  active  only  when  it  is  called  upon. 

That  the  judgement  soon  goes  to  sleep  may  be  perceived  by  our 
sometimes  beginning  to  dream  beiore  we  are  fully  asleep  ourselves. 
Some  random  thought  runs  in  the  mind,  and  we  start,  as  it  were, 
into  recollection  that  we  are  dreaming  between  sleeping  and  wak 
ing. 

If  the  judgment  sleeps  whilst  the  imagination  keeps  awake,  the 
dream  will  be  a  riotous  assemblage  of  misshapen  images  and  ranting 
ideas,  and  the  more  active  the  imagination  is  the  wilder  the  dream 
will  be.  The  most  inconsistent  and  the  most  impossible  things 
will  appear  right ;  because  that  faculty  whose  province  it  is  to 
keep  order  is  in  a  state  of  absence.  The  master  of  the  school  is 
gone  out  and  the  boys  are  in  an  uproar. 

If  the  memory  sleeps  we  shall  have  no  other  knowledge  of  the 
dream  than  that  we  have  dreamt,  without  knowing  what  it  was 
about.  In  this  case  it  is  sensation  rather  than  recollection  that 
acts.  The  dream  has  given  us  some  sense  of  pain  or  (rouble,  and 
we  feel  it  as  a  hurt,  rather  than  remember  it  as  a  vision. 


4  AN  ESSAY 

If  memory  only  slumbers  we  shall  have  a  faint  remembrance  oi 
the  dream,  and  after  a  few  minutes  it  will  sometimes  happen  that 
the  principal  passages  of  the  dream  will  occur  to  us  more  fully. 
The  cause  of  this  is  thai  the  memory  will  sometimes  continue  slum 
bering  or  sleeping  after  we  are  awake  ourselves,  and  that  so  fully, 
that  itina),  and  sometimes  do,  happen,  that  we  do  not  immedi 
ately  recollect  where  we  are,  nor  what  we  have  been  about,  or 
have  to  do.  But  when  the  memory  starts  into  wakefulness  it  brings 
the  knowledge  of  these  things  back  upon  us,  like  a  flood  of  light, 
and  sometimes  the  dream  with  it. 

But  the  most  curious  circumstance  of  the  mind  in  a  state  of  dream, 
is  the  power  it  has  to  become  the  agent  of  every  person,  character 
and  thing,  of  which  it  dreams,  It  carries  on  conversation  with 
several,  asks  questions,  hears  auswers,  gives  and  receives  inform 
ation,  and  it  acts  all  these  parts  itself. 

But  howev.r  various  and  eccentric  the  imagination  may  be  in 
the  creation  of  images  and  ideas,  it  cannot  supply  the  place  of  me 
mory,  with  respect  to  tnings  that  are  forgotten  when  we  are  awake. 
For  example,  if  we  have  forgotten  the  name  of  a  person,  and 
dream  of  seeing  him,  and  asking  him  his  name,  he  cannot  tell  it; 
for  it  is  ourselves  askmg  ourselyes  the  question. 

But  though  the  imagination  cannot  supply  the  place  of  real  me 
mory  it  has  the  wild  faculty  of  counterfeiting  memory.  It  dreams 
of  persons  it  never  knew,  and  talks  with  them  as  if  it  remember 
ed  them  as  old  acquaintances.  It  relates  circumstances  that  never 
happened,  and  tells  them  as  if  they  had  happened.  It  goes  to 
places  that  never  existed,  and  knows  where  all  the  streets  and 
houses  are  as  if  it  had  been  there  before.  The  scenes  it  creates 
'often  appear  as  scenes  remembered.  It  will  sometimes  act  a 
dream  within  a  dream,  and  in  the  delusion  of  dreaming  tell  a 
dream  it  never  dreamed  and  tell  it  as  if  it  was  from  memory.  It 
j»ay  also  be  remarked,  that  the  imagination,  in  a  dream,  has  no 


ON  DREAM.  * 

idea  of  time,  «s  time.  It  counts  only  by  circumstances ;  and  if  a 
succession  of  circumstances  pass  in  a  dream  that  would  require  a 
great  length  of  time  to  accomplish  them,  it  will  appear  to  the 
dreamer  that  a  length  of  time  equal  thereto  has  passed  also. 

As  this  is  the  state  of  the  mind  in  dream  it  may  rationally  be 
said  that  every  person  is  mad  once  in  twenty-four  hours,  for  were 
he  to  act  in  the  day  as  he  dreams  in  the  night  he  would  be  con 
fined  for  a  lunatic.  In  a  state  of  wakefulness  those  three  faculties 
being  all  active  and  acting  in  unison  constitute  the  rational  man. 
In  dream  it  is  otherwise,  and  therefore  that  state  which  is  called 
insanity  appears  to  be  no  other  than  a  disunion  of  those  faculties 
and  a  cessation  of  the  judgment,  during  wakefulness,  that  we  so 
often  experience  during  sleep  ;  and  idiocity,  into  which  some  per 
sons  have  fallen,  is  that  cessation  of  all  the  faculties  of  which  we 
can  be  sensible  when  we  happen  to  wake  before  our  memory. 

In  this  view  of  the  mind  how  absurd  is  it  to  place  reliance  upon 
dreams,  and  how  more  absurd  to  make  them  a  foundation  for  re 
ligion  ;  yet  the  belief  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  son  of  God,  begot 
ten  by  the  holy  ghost,  a  being  never  heard  of  before,  stands  on 
the  story  of  an  old  man's  dream.  "  And  behold  the  angel  of  the 
"  Lord  appeared  to  Joseph  in  a  dream,  saying,  Joseph,  thou  son  of 
"  David,  ftar  not  to  take  unto  thee  Mary  thy  wije,  for  that  tvhich  w 
«  conceived  in  her  is  of  the  holy  ghost."  Matt.  ch.  1,  v.  20. 

After  this  we  have  the  childish  stories  of  three  or  four  other 
dreams  ;  about  Joseph  going  into  Egypt  ;  about  his  coming  back 
again  ;  about  this,  and  about  that,  and  this  story  of  dreams  has 
thrown  Europe  into  a  dream  for  morethnn  a  thousand  years.  Ali 
the  efforts  that  nature,  reason,  and  conscience  have  made  to  a- 
waken  man  from  it  have  been  ascribed  by  priestcraft  and  supersti 
tion  to  the  workings  of  the  devil,  and  had  it  not  been  for  the  Ame 
rican  revolution,  which  by  establishing  the  nntiersal  right  of  con 
science,  first  opened  the  way  to  free  discussion,  and  for  the  French 
revolution  which  followed,  this  religion  of  dreams  had  continued 


6  AN  ESSAY 

to  be  preached,  and  that  after  it  had  ceased  to  be  believed.  Those. 
who  preached  it  and  did  not  believe  it,  still  believed  the  delusion 
necessary.  They  were  not  bold  enough  to  be  honest,  nor  honest 
enough  to  be  bold. 

I  shall  conclude  this  Essay  on  Dream  with  the  two  first  verses 
of"  the  36  chapter  of  Ecclesiasticus  one  of  the  books  of  the  Apo 
crypha. 

v.  I .  "  The  hopes  of  a  man  void  of  understanding  are  vain  and 
"false  ;  and  dreams  lift  up  fools. — Whoso  regardeth  dreams  is  like 
"  him  that  catcheth  at  a  shadow,  andfollozveth  after  the  wind." 

I  now  proceed  to  an  examination  of  the  passages  in  the  bible  call 
ed  prophecies  of  the  coming  of  Christ,  and  to  shew  there  are  no 
prophecies  of  any  such  person.  That  the  passages  clandestinely 
stiled  prophecies  are  not  prophecies,  and  that  they  refer  to  circum 
stances  tne  Jewish  nation  was  in  at  the  time  they  were  wiitten  or 
spoken,  and  not  to  any  distant  or  future  time  or  person. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


AN 


OF    THE 


Passages  in  the  Ne^v  Testament, 

4UOTED  FROM  THE  OLD  AND  CALLED  PROPHECIES  OF  THE 
COMING  OF 

JESUS  CHRIST. 


T. 
HE  passages  called  Prophecies  of,  or  concerning,  Jesus  Christ 

In  the  Old  Testament  may  be  classed  under  the  two  following 
.heads. 

First,  those  referred  to  in  the  four  books  of  the  New  Testament, 
called  the  four  Evangelists,  Matthew  9  Mark,  Luke  and  John. 

Secondly,  those  which  translators  and  commentators,  have,  of 
their  own  imagination,  erected  into  prophecies  and  dubbed  with 
ihat  title  at  the  head  of  the  several  chapters  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment.  Of  these  it  is  scarcely  worth  while  to  waste  time,  ink  and 
paper  upon,  I  shall  therefore  confine  myself  chiefly  so  those  referred 
to  in  the  aforesaid  four  books  of  the  New  Testament.  If  I  shew  that 
these  are  not  prophesies  of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ,  nor  have 
reference  to  any  such  person,  it  will  be  perfectly  needless  to  com 
bat  those  which  translators  or  the  church  have  invented,  and  for 
which  they  had  no  other  authority  than  their  own  imagination. 


8  AN  EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

I  begin  with  the  book  called  the  gospel  according  to  St.  Mat 
thew. 

In  the  first  chap.  v.  18,  it  is  said  "  now  the  birth  of  Jesus  Christ 
"  was  in  this  wise  :  tuhen  as  his  mother  Mary  ivas  espoused  to  Joseph  > 
t(  before  they  came  together,  SHE  WAS  FOUND  WITH  CHILD  BY 
"  THE  HOLY  GHOST."— This  is  going  a  little  too  fast ;  because  to 
make  this  verse  agree  with  the  next,  it  should  have  said  no  more 
than  that  the  was  found with  child  ;  for  the  next  verse  says,  "  Then 
"Joseph  her  husband  being  a  just  man,  and  not  willing  to  make  her  a 
"  public  example,  was  minded  to  put  her  away  privately" — Conse 
quently  Joseph  had  found  out  rib  more  than  that  she  was  with  child, 
and  he  knew  it  was  not  by  himself. 

v.  20.  "  And  white  lie  thought  of  these  things"  (that  is,  whether 
he  should  put  her  away  privately,  or  rhake  a  public  example  of  her) 
"behold  the  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to  him  IN  A  DREAM/'  (that 
is,  Joseph  dreamed  that  an  angel  appeared  unto  him)  "  saying, 
"Joseph,  thou  son  of  David,  fear  not  to  take  un*o  thee  Mary  thy  wife, 
"for  that  which  is  conceived  in  her  is  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  And  she 
"  s/«z//  bring  forth  a  son  and  call  his  name  Jesus,  for  he  shall  save  his 
"  people  from  their  sins" 

Now  without  entering  into  any  discussion  upon  the  merits  or  de 
merits  of  the  account  here  given,  it  is  proper  to  observe,  that  it  has 
no  higher  authority  than  that  of  a  dream  ;  for  it  is  impossible  to  a 
man  to  behold  any  thing  in  a  dream  buMhat  which  he  dreams  of, 
I  ask  not,  therefore,  whether  Joseph,  if  there  were  such  a  man,  had 
such  a  dream  or  not,  because,  admitting  he  had,  it  proves  nothing, 
So  wonderful  and  irrational  is  the  faculty  of  the  mind  in  dream, 
that  it  acts  the  part  of  all  the  characters  its  imagination  creates, 
and  what  it  thinks  it  hears  from  any  of  them  is  no  other  than  what 
the  roving  rapidity  of  its  own  imagination  invents.  It  is  therefore 
nothing  to  me  what  Joseph  dreamed  of;  whether  of  the  fidelity  or 
infidelity  of  his  wife;  I  pay  no  regard  to  my  own  dreams,  and 
I  should  be  weak  indeed  to  put  faith  in  the  dreams  of  another. 


•  IN    THE   NEW   TESTAMENT.  9 

The  verses  that  follow  those  I  have  quoted,  are  the  words  of  the 
writer  of  the  book  of  Matthew.  "  Now  (says  he)  all  this  (that  is 
'<  all  this  dreaming  and  this  pregnancy)  was  done  that  it  might  be 
"fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the  Lord  by  the  prophet,  saying. 

"  Behold  a  Virgin  shall  be  with  child,  and  shall  bring  forth  a  son, 
"  and  they  shall  call  his  name  Emmanuel,  whichf  being  interpreted, 
"  is  God  with  us." 

This  passage  is  in  Isaiah,  chap.  7,  v.  14.  and  the  writer  of  the 
book  of  Matthew  endeavours  to  make  his  readers  believe  that  this 
passage  is  a  prophecy  of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  no 
such  thing  ;  and  I  go  to  shew  it  is  not.  But  it  is  first  necessary 
that  I  explain  the  occasion  of  these  words  being  spoken  by  Isaiah. 
The  reader  will  then  easily  perceive  that  so  far  from  their  being  a 
prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  have  not  the  least  reference  to  such  / 
a  person,  nor  to  any  thing  that  could  happen  in  the  time  that  Christ 
is  said  to  have  lived,  which  was  about  seven  hundred  years  after 
(he  time  of  Isaiah.  The  case  is  this, 

On  the  death  of  Solomon  the  Jewish  nation  split  into  two  monar 
chies  ;  one  called  the  kingdom  of  Judah,  the  capital  of  which  was 
Jerusalem  ;  the  other  the  kingdom  of  Israel,  the  capital  of  which 
was  Samaria.  The  kingdom  of  Judah  followed  the  line  of  David, 
and  the  kingdom  of  Israel  that  of  Saul ;  and  these  two  rival  mo 
narchies  frequently  carried  on  fierce  wars  against  each  other. 

At  the  time  Ahaz  was  king  of  Judah,  which  was  in  the  time  of 
Jsaiah,  Pekah  was  king  of  Israel;  and  Pekah  joined  himself  to 
Xezin,  king  of  Syria,  to  make  war  against  Ahaz,  king  of  Judah, 
and  these  two  kings  marched  a  confederated  and  powerful  army 
against  Jerusalemn.  Ahaz  and  his  people  became  alarmed  at  the 
danger,  and  "  their  hearts  were  moved  as  the  trees  of  the  wood  arc 
"  moved  with  the  wind."  Isaiah  chap.  7,  v.  2. 

In  this  perilous  situation  of  things  Isaiah  addresses  himself  to 


10  AN   EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

Ahaz,  and  assures  him  in  the  name  of  the  Lord,  (the  cant  phrase 
of  all  the  prophets)  that  these  two  kings  should  not  succeed  against 
him  ;  and  to  assure  him  that  this  should  be  the  case  (the  case  how 
ever  was  directly  contrary,*)  tells  Ahaz  to  ask  a  sign  of  the  Lord. 
This-  Ahaz  declined  doing,  giving  as  a  reason  that  he  would  not 
tempt  the  Lord  ;  upon  which  Isaiah,  who  pretends  to  be  sent  from 
God,  says,  v.  14-,  •  "Therefore  the  Lord  himself  shall  give  you 
"  a  sign,  behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son — Butter  and 
"  honey  shall  he  eat  that  he  may  know  to  refuse  the  evil  and  chuse 
"  the  good — For  before  the  child  shall  know  to  refuse  the  evil  and 
*'  chuse  the  good,  the  land  which  thou  abhorrest  shall  be  forsaken 
"  of  both  her  kings,"  meaning  the  king  of  Israel  and  the  king  of 
Syria  who  were  marching  against  him. 

Here  then  is  the  sign,  which  was  to  be  the  birth  of  a  child,  and 
that  child  a  son  ;  and  here  also  is  the  time  limited  for  the  accom 
plishment  of  the  sign,  namely,  before  the  child  should  know  to 
refuse  the  evil  and  chuse  the  good. 

The  thing  therefore  to  be  a  sign  of  success  to  Ahaz  must  be 
something  that  would  take  place  before  the  event  of  the  battle  then 
pending  between  him  and  the  two  kings  could  be  known.  A  thing 
to  be  a  sign  must  precede  the  thing  signified.  The  sign  of  rain 
must  be  before  the  rain. 

It  would  have  been  mockery  and  insulting  nonsense  for  Isaiah 


*  Chron.  chap.  28.  v.  1st.  Ahaz  was  twenty  years  old  whew  he 
began  to  reign,  and  he  reigned  sixteen  years  injerusalemn,  but  he  did 
not  that  which  was  right  in  the  sight  of  the  Lord. — v.  5.  Wherefore 
the  Lord  his  God  delivered  him  into  the  hand  oj  the  king  of  Syria,  and 
they  smote  him,  and  carried  away  a  great  multitude  of  them  captive 
and  brought  them  to  Damascus,  and  he  was  also  delivered  into  the  hand 
Of  the  king  of  Israel,  who  smote  him  with  a  great  slaughter. 

v.  6.  And  Pekah  (king  of  Israel)  slew  in  Judah  an  hundred  and 
twenty  thousandin  one  day. — v.  8.  And  the  children  of  Israel  carried 
away  captive  of  their  brethren  two  hundred  thousand  woment  sons  and 
daughters. 


IN    THE    NEW  TESTAMENT.  H 

to  have  assured  Ahaz  as  a  sign  that  these  two  kings  should  not  pre 
vail  against  him,  that  a  child  should  be  born  seven  hundred  years 
after  he  was  dead,  and  that  before  tfye  child  so  born  should  know 
to  refuse  the  evil  and  choose  the  good,  he,  Ahaz,  should  be  deli 
vered  from  the  danger  he  was  then  immediately  threatened  with. 

But  the  case  is,  that  the  child  of  which  Isaiah  speaks  was  his 
own  child,  with  which  his  wife  or  his  mistress  was  then  pregnant, 
for  he  says  in  the  next  chapter,  v.  2,  "  and  I  took  unto  me  faith- 
*lful  witnesses  to  record,  Uriah  the  priest,  and  Zechariah  the  son  of 
"  Jeberechiah,  and  I  went  unto  the  prophetess  and  she  conceived  and 
"  bear  a  son"  and  he  says  at  1 8  v.  of  the  same  chapter,  "  'Behold  I 
*  and  the  children  whom  the  Lord  hath  given  me  are  for  signs  and  for 
? wonders  in  Israel." 

It  may  not  be  improper  here  to  observe  that  the  word  translated 
a  virgin  in  Isaiah  does  not  signify  a  virgin  in  Hebrew,  but  merely 
a  young  woman.  The  Tense  also  is  falsified  in  the  translation. 
Levi  gives  the  Hebrew  text  of  the  1 4  v.  of  the  7  th  chapter  of  Isaiah 
and  the  translation  in  English  with  it — "  Behold  a  young  woman 
"is  with  child  and  beareth  a  son.11  The  expression,  says  he,  is 
in  the  present  tense.  This  translation  agrees  with  the  other  cir 
cumstances  related  of  the  birth  of  this  child  which  was  to  be  a  sign 
to  Ahaz.  But  as  the  true  translation  could  not  have  been  im 
posed  upon  the  world  as  a  prophecy  of  a  child  to  be  born  seven 
hundred  years  afterwards,  the  Christian  translators  have  falsified 
the  original ;  and  instead  of  making  Isaiah  to  say  behold  a  young 
•woman  is  with  child  and  beareth' a.  son,  they  have  made  him  to 
say,  Behold  a  virgin  shall  conceive  and  bear  a  son/'  It  is,  how 
ever,  only  necessary  for  a  person  to  read  the  7th  and  8th  chapters 
of  Isaiah  and  he  will  be  convinced  that  the  passage  in  question  is 
no  prophecy  of  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ.  I  pass  on  to  the 
second  passage  quoted  from  the  old  testament  by  the  new  as  a 
prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ, 


It?  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

Matthew  chap.  2.  v.  1st.  <»  Now  when  Jesus  was  born  in  Be- 
•"  thleham  of  Judea  in  the  days  of  Herod  the  king,  behold  there 
"  came  wise  men  from  the  east  to  Jerusalem, — saying,  where  is  he 
*'  that  is  born  king  of  the  Jews  ?  for  we  have  seen  his  star  in  the 
«  East  and  are  come  to  worship  him— When  Herod  the  king  heard 
ft  these  things  he  was  troubled,  and  all  Jerusalemn  with  him,— 
"  and  when  he  had  gathered  all  the  chief  priests  and  scribes  of  the 
"  people  together,  he  demanded  of  them  where  Christ  should  be 
"  born— and  they  said  unto  him  in  Bethlehem  in  the  land  of Judea ; 
f<  for  thus  it  is  written  by  the  prophet— and  thou  Bethlehem*  in  the 
"  land  of  Judea  art  not  the  least  among  the  princes  ofJudah,  for  out 
f '  ofthee  shall  come  a  Governor  that  shall  rule  my  people  /«ra#."-w 
This  passage  is  in  Micah  chap.  5,  v.  2. 

I  pass  over  the  absurdity  of  seeing  and  following  a  star  in  the 
day  time  as  a  man  would  a  will  with  the  tvhisp,  or  a  candle  and 
lanthron  at  night ;  and  also  that  of  seeing  it  in  the  east  when  them 
selves  came  from  the  east;  for  could  such  a  thing  be  seen  at  all  to 
$erve  them  for  a  guide,  it  must  be  in  the  west  to  them.  I  confine 
myself  solely  to  the  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  book  of  Micah,  in  the  passage  above  quoted,  chap  5.  verf 
2.  is  speaking  of  some  person,  without  mentioning  his  name, 
from  whom  some  great  atchievements  were  expected ;  but  the 
description  he  gives  of  this  person  at  the  5th  v.  proves  evidently 
that  it  is  not  Jesus  Christ,  for  he  says  at  the  5th  verse,  "  AndMz* 
*'  man  shall  be  the  peace  when  the  Assyrian  shall  come  into  our 
*•'  land,  and  when  he  shall  tread  in  our  palaces,  then  shall  we  raise 
«  up  against  him  (that  is,  against  the  Assyrian)  seven  shepherds 
"  and  eight  principal  men. — v.  6. — And  they  shall  waste  the 
"  land  of  Assyria  with  the  sword,  and  the  land  of  Nimrod 
"  on  the  entrance  thereof  j  thus  shall  He  (the  person  spoken  of 
€€  at  the  head  of  the  second  verse)  deliver  us  from  the  Assyrian 


IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  J& 

•«*  when  he  cometh  into  our  land,  and  when  he  treadeth  within^ 
49  our  borders." 

This  is  so  evidently  descriptive  of  a  military  chief,  that  it  cai^ 
not  be  applied  to  Christ  without  outraging  the  character  they  pre 
tend  to  give  us  of  him.  Besides  which,  the  circumstances  of  the 
times  here  spoken  of,  and  those  of  the  times  in  which  Christ  is 
said  to  have  lived,  are  in  contradiction  to  each  other.  It  was  the 
Komans,  and  not  the  Assyrians,  that  had  conquered  and  were  in 
the  land  of  Judea,  and  trodin  their  palaces  when  Christ  was  born, 
and  when  he  died,  and  so  far  from  his  driving  them  out,  it  was 
they  who  signed  the  warrant  for  his  execution  and  he  suffered 
under  it.  » 

Having  thus  shewn  that  this  is  no  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ,  I 
pass  on  to  the  third  passage  quoted  from  the  Old  Testament  by 
the  New  as  a  prophecy  of  him. 

This,  like  the  first  I  have  spoken  of  is  introduced  by  a  dream. 
Joseph  dreameth  another  dream,  and  dreameth  that  he  seeth 
another  Angel.  The  acconnt  begins  at  the  1 3th  v.  of  2d  chap, 
of  Matthew. 

"  The  angel  of  the  Lord  appeared  to  Joseph  in  a  dream,, 
tf  saying,  Arise  and  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother  and 
"  flee  into  Egypt,  and  be  thou  there  until  I  bring  thee  word : 
"  For  Herod  will  seek  the  life  of  the  young  child  to  destroy  him. 
*f  — When  he  arose  he  took  the  young  child  and  his  mother  by 
"  night  and  departed  into  Egypt — and  was  there  until  the  death 
"  of  Herod,  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  of  the 
"  Lord  by  the  prophet  saying,  Out  of  Egypt  have  1  called  my 
"  son." 

This  passage  is  in'the  book  of  Hosea,  chap.  xi.  ver.  1.  The 
words  are,  "  When  Israel  was  a  child  then  I  loved  him  and  called 
5!  wy  son  out  of  Egypt — As  they  called  them  so  they  went  from 


14?  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

n  them,  they  sacrificed  unto  Baalim  and  burnt  incense  to  grav- 
*'  en  images." 

This  passage,  falsely  called  a  prophecy  of  Christ,  refers  to  the 
children  of  Israel  coming  out  of  Egypt  in  the  time  of  Pharaoh, 
and  to  the  idolatry  they  committed  afterwards.  To  make  it  ap 
ply  to  Jesus  Christ  he  then  must  be  the  person  who  sacrificed  un 
to  Baalim  and  burnt  incence  to  graven  images  ;  for  the  persons  call 
ed  out  of  Egypt  by  the  collective  name,  Israel,  and  the  persons 
committing  this  idolatry  are  the  same  persons,  or  the  descendants 
of  them.  This  then  can  be  no  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ  unless 
they  are  willing  to  make  an  idolater  of  him.  I  pass  on  to  the 
fourth  passage  called  a  prophecy  by  the  writer  of  the  took  of 
Matthew. 

This  is  introduced  by  a  story  told  by  nobody,  but  himself,  and 
scarcely  believed  by  any  body,  of  the  slaughter  of  all  the  chil 
dren  under  two  years  old,  by  the  command  of  Herod.  A  thing 
which  it  is  not  probable  could  be  done  by  Herod  as  he  only  held 
an  office  under  the  Roman  government,  to  which  appeals  could 
always  be  had,  as  we  see  in  the  case  of  Paul. 

Matthew,  however,  having  made  or  told  this  story,  says,  chap, 
ii.  ver.  17. — "Then  was  fulfilled  that  which  was  spoken  by  Jere- 
*  my  the  prophet,  saying, — In  Ramah  was  there  a  voice  heard  la- 
f*  mentation,  and  weeping,  and  great  mourning,  Rachel  weeping  for 
"  her  children  and  would  not  be  comforted  because  they  were  not" 

This  passage  isin  Jeremiah,  chap  xxxi.  yer.  15.  and  this  verse, 
when  separated  from  ihe  verses  before  it  and  after  it,  and  which 
explains  its  application,  might  with  equal  propriety  be  applied  to 
every  case  of  wars,  sieges,  and  other  violences,  such  as  the 
Christians  themselves  have  often  done  to  the  Jews,  where  mo 
thers  have  lamented  the  loss  of  their  children.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  verse laken  singly  that  designates,  or  points  out,  any  parti- 


IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  U 

cular  application  of  it,  otherwise  than  that  it  points  to  some  cir 
cumstance  which,  at  the  time  of  writing  it,  had  already  hap 
pened,  and  not  to  a  thing  yet  to  happen,  for  the  verse  is  in  the 
preter  or  past  tense — I  go  to  explain  the  case  and  shew  the  appli 
cation  of  the  verse. 

Jeremiah  lived  in  the  time  that  Nebuchadnezar  besieged,  took, 
plundered,  and  destroyed  Jerusalem  and  led  the  Jews  captive  to 
Babylon.  Hecarried  his  violence  against  the  Jews  to  every  ex 
treme.  He  slew  the  sons  of  king  Zedekiah  before  his  face,  he 
then  put  out  the  eyes  of  Zedekiah,  and  kept  him  in  prison  till  the 
«Iay  of  his  death. 

It  is  of  this  time  of  sorrow  and  suffering  to  the  Jews  that  Jere 
miah  is  speaking.  Their  Temple  was  destroyed,  their  land  deso 
lated,  their  nation  and  govern  men  t  entirely  broken  up,  and  them 
selves,  men,  women,  and  children,,  carried  into  captivity.  They 
had  too  many  sorrows  of  their  own,  immediately  before  their  eyes, 
to  permit  them,  or  any  of  their  chiefs,  to  be  employing  them^. 
selves  on  things  that  might,  or  might  not,  happen  in  the  World 
several  hundred  years  afterwards. 

It  is,  as  already  observed,  of  this  time  of  sorrow  and  suffering 
to  the  Jews  that  Jeremiah  is  speaking  in  the  verse  in  question.  In 
the  two  next  verses  the  16  and  17,  he  endeavours  to  console  the 
sufferers  by  giving  them  hopes,  and,  according  to  the  fashion  of 
speaking  in  those  days,  assurances  from  the  Lord,  that  their  suf 
ferings  should  have  an  end,  and  that  their  children  should  return 
again  to  their  own  land.  But  I  leave  the  verses  to  speak  for 
themselves,  and  the  Old-testament  to  testify  against  the  New. 

Jeremiah  chap.  xxxi.  ver.  15. — "  Thus  saith  the  Lord  a  voice 
"  was  heard  in  Ramah  (it  is  in  the  preter  tense)  lamentation  and 
"  bitter  weeping:  Rachel  weeping  for  her  children,  refused  te» 
**  be  comforted  for  her  children  because  they  were  not. 


16  AN    EXAMINATION    OP    THE    PASSAGES 

Verse  16. — "  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  refrain  thy  voice  from 
"  weeping,  and  thine  eyes  from  tears:  for  thy  work  shall  bere- 
'v  warded,  saith  the  Lord,  and  THEY  shall  come  again  from  the 
"  land  of  the  enemy. 

Verse  17. — "  And  there  is  hope  in  thine  end,  saith  the  Lord, 
*^  that  thy  children  shall  come  again  to  their  own  border." 

By  what  strange  ignorance  or  imposition  is  it,  that  the  chil 
dren  of  which  Jeremiah  speaks  (meaning  the  people  of  the  Jew 
ish  nation,  scripturally  called  children  of  Israel,  and  not  mere 
infants  under  two  years  old)  and  who  were  to  return  again  from 
the  land  of  the  enemy,  and  come  again  into  their  own  borders, 
can  mean  the  children  that  Matthew  makes  Herod  to  slaughter. 
Could  those  return  again  from  the  land  of  the  enemy,  or  how 
can  the  land  of  the  enemy  be  applied  to  them  ?  Could  they  come 
again  to  their  own  Borders  ?  Good  heavens  !  How  has  the  world 
been  imposed  upon  by  testament-makers,  priest-craft,  and  pre 
tended  prophecies.  I  pass  on  to  the  fifth  passage  called  a  pro* 
phecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This,  like  two  of  the  former,  is  introduced  by  a  dream.  Jo 
seph  dreameth  another  dream,  and  dreameth  of  another  Angel-, 
and  Matthew  is  again  the  historian  of  the  dream  and  the  dreamer. 
If  it  were  asked  how  Matthew  couMknow  what  Joseph  dreamed, 
neither  the  Bishop  nor  all  the  Church  could  answer  the  question. 
Perhaps  it  was  Matthew  that  dreamed  and  not  Joseph ;  that  is, 
Joseph  dreamed  by  proxy  in  Matthew's  brain,  as  they  tell  us  Da 
niel  dreamed  for  Nebuchadnezor. — But  be  this  as  it  may  I  go  on 
with  my  subject. 

The  account  of  this  dream  is  in  Matthew,  chap.  ii.  ver.  19, 
«'  But  when  Herod  was  dead,  behold  an  Angel  of  the  Lord  ap- 
"  peared  in  a  dream  to  Joseph  in  Egypt — Saving,  Arise,  and 
f(  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother  and  go  into  the  land  of 


IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT*  If 

**  Israel,  for  they  are  dead  which  sought  the  young  child's  life— 
*'  and  he  arose  and  took  the  young  child  and  his  mother  and  came 
et.  into  the  land  of  Israel—But  when  he  heard  that  Archelaus  did 
"  reign  in  Juuea  in  the  room  of  his  father  Herod,  he  was  afraidt 
"  to  go  thither.  Notwithstanding  being  warned  of  God  in  a 
"  dream  (here  is  another  dream)  he  turned  aside  into  the  parts  of 
"  Galilee — and  he  came  and  dwelt  in  a  city  called  Nazareth  that  it 
<f  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  the  prophets— He  shall  be 
•'  called  a  Nazarine. 

Here  is  good,  circumstantial  evidence,  that  Matthew  dreamed, 
for  there  is  no  such  passage  in  all  the  Old  Testament :  and  I  in 
vite  the  bishop  and  all  tfce  priests  of  Christendom,  including  those 
of  America,  to  produce  it.  I  pass  on  to  the  sixth  passage  called 
a  prophecy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

This,  as  Swift  says  on  another  occasion,  is  lugged  in  head  an 
shoulders.     It   needs  only  to  be  seen  in  order  to  be  hooted  as  a 
forced  and  far-fetched  piece  of  imposition. 

Matthew,  chap.  4.  v.  12.  "  Now  when  Jesus  heard  that  John 
*'  was  cast  into  prison  he  departed  into  Galilee — and  leaving  Na~ 
**  zareth  he  came  and  dwelt  in  Capernaum,  which  is  upon  the  sea- 
**  coast,  in  the  borders  of  Zebulon  and  Nephthalim— That  it  might 
"  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken  by  Esaias  (Isaiah)  the  prophet, 
"  saying, — The  land  oj  Zebulon,  and  the  land  of  Nephthalim,  by  the 
"  way  of  the  sea,  beyond  Jordan,  Gulilee  of  the  Ge»tilcs—ihe  peo- 
"  pie  which  sat  in  darkness  saw  great  light,  and  to  them  which  sat  in 
"  the  region  and  shadow  of  death,  light  is  springing  upon  them/' 

I  wonder  Matthew  has  not  made  the  cris-cross-row,  or  the 
ehrist-cross-now,  (I  know  not  how  the  priests  spell  it)  into  a  pro 
phecy.  He  might  as  well  have  done  this,  as  cut  out  these  uncon 
nected  and  undescriptive  sentences  from  the  place  they  stand  in 
and  dubbed  them  with  that  title. 


18  AN    EXAMINATION    OP    THE    PASSAGES 

The  words,  however,  are  in  Isaiah,  chap.  9,  v.  1,2.  as  fol 
lows  : 

"  Nevertheless  the  dimness  shall  not  be  such  as  was  in  her  vex- 
"  ation  when  at  the  first  he  lightly  afflicted  the  land  of  Zebulon,  and 
"  the  land  of  Napthali,  and  afterwards  did  more  grievously  afflict 
"  her  hy  the  way  of  the  sea  beyond  Jordan  in  Galilee  of  the  nations."' 

All  this  relate  to  two  circumstances  that  had  already  happened 
at  the  time  these  words  in  Isaiah  were  written.  The  one  where 
the  land  of  Zebulon  and  of  Napthali  had  been  lightly  afflicted,  and 
afterwards  more  grievously  by  the  way  of  the  sea. 

But  observe  reader,  how  Matthew  has  falsified  the  text.  He 
begins  his  quotation  at  a  part  of  the  verse  where  there  is  not  so 
much  as  a  comma,  and  thereby  cuts  off  every  thing  that  relates 
to  the  first  affliction.  He  then  leaves  out  all  that  relate  to  the  se 
cond  affliction,  and  by  this  means  leaves  out  every  thing  that  makes 
the  verse  intelligible,  and  reduces  it  to  a  senseless  skeleton  of  names 
of  towns. 

To  bring  this  imposition  of  Matthew  clearly  and  immediately 
before  the  eye  of  the  reader,  I  will  repeat  the  verse,  and  put  be 
tween  crotchets  []  the  words  he  has  left  out,  and  put  in  Italics 
those  he  has  preserved. 

[Nevertheless  the  dimness  shall  not  be  such  as  was  in  her  vexa 
tion  when  at  the  first  he  lightly  afflicted]  the  land  of 'Zebulon  and 
the  land  of  Napthali,  [and  did  afterwards  more  grievously  afflict  her] 
by  the  ivay  of  the  sea  beyond  Jordan  in  Galilee  of  the  nations. 

What  gross  imposition  is  it  to  gut,  as  the  phrase  is,  a  verse  in 
this  manner,  render  it  perfectly  senseless,  and  then  puff  it  off  on  a 
credulous  world  as  a  prophecy.  I  proceed  to  the  next  verse. 

v.  2.  ."  The  people  that  walked  in  darkness  have  seen 
"a  great  light;  they  that  dwell  in  the  land  of  the  shadow  of 
"  death  upon  them  hath  the  light  shined."  All  this  is  historical 


IN    THE    NEW  TESTAMENT,  19. 

tmd  not  in  the  least  prophetical.  The  whole  is  in  the  preter  tense. 
It  speaks  of  things  that  had  been  accomplished  at  the  time  the  words 
weie  written,  and  not  of  things  to  be  accomplished  afterwards. 

As  then  the  passage  is  in  no  possible  sense  prophetical,  nor  in 
tended  to  be  so,  and  that  to  attempt  to  make  it  so  is  not  only  to  fal 
sify  the  original,  but  to  commit  a  criminal  imposition,  it  is  matter  of 
no  concern  to  us,  otherwise  than  as  curiosity,  to  know  who  the 
people  were  of  which  the  passage  speaks  that  sat  in  darkness,  and 
what  the  light  was  that  had  shined  in  upon  them. 

If  we  look  into  the  preceding  chapter,  the  8th,  of  which  the  9th 
is  only  a  continuation,  we  shall  find  the  writer  speaking  at  the  19th 
verse  of  "  witches  and  wizards  who  peep  about  and  mutter"  and  of 
people  who  made  application  to  them  ;  and  he  preaches  and  ex 
horts  them  against  this  darksome  practice.  It  is  of  this  people, 
and  of  this  darksome  practice,  or  zvalking  in  darkness  that  he  is 
speaking  at  the  2d  verse  of  the  9th  chapter ;  and  with  respect  to 
the  light  that  had  shined  in  upon  them  it  refers  entirely  to  his  own  mi 
nistry,  and  to  the  boldness  of  it,  which  opposed  itself  to  that  of 
the  witches  and  wizards  who  peeped  about  and  muttered* 

Isaiah  is  upon  the  whole,  a  wild  disorderly  writer,  preserving,  in 
general,  no  clear  chain  of  perception  in  the  arrangement  of  his 
ideas,  and  consequently  producing  no  defined  conclusions  from 
them.  It  is  the  wildness  of  his  stile,  the  confusion  of  his  ideas,  and 
the  ranting  metaphors  he  employs,  that  have  afforded  so  many  op 
portunities  to  priest- craft  in  some  cases,  and  to  superstition  in 
others,  to  impose  those  defects  upon  the  world  as  prophecies  o£ 
Jesus  Christ.  Finding  no  direct  meaning  in  them,  and  not  know 
ing  what  to  make  of  them,  and  supposing,  at  the  same  time,  they 
were  intended  to  have  a  meaning  they  supplied  the  defect  by  inr 
venting  a  meaning  of  their  own,  and  called  ft  his.  I  have,  how 
ever,  in  this  place,  done  Isaiah  the  justice  to  rescue  him  from  the 
©laws  of  Matthew,  who  has  torn  him  unmercifully  to  pieces,  and 


26  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    *HE    PASSAGE* 

from  the  imposition  or  ignorance  of  priests  and  commentators,  by 
letting  Isaiah  speak  for  himself. 

If  the  words  walking  in  darkness,  and  light  brewing  in,  could,  in 
any  case,  be  applied  prophetically,  which  they  cannot  be,  they 
would  better  apply  to  the  times  we  now  live  in,  than  to  any  other* 
The  world  has  "  walked  in  darkness"  for  eighteen  hundred  years* 
both  as  to  religion  and  government,  and  it  is  only  since  the  Ame 
rican  revolution  began  that  light  has  broken  in.  The  belief  of  out 
God,  whose  attributes  are  revealed  to  us  in  the  book  or  scripture  of 
the  creation  which  no  human  hand  can  counterfeit  or  falsify,  and 
not  in  a  written  or  printed  book,  which,  as  Matthew  has  shewn, 
can  be  altered  or  falsified  by  ignorance  or  design,  is  now  making 
its  way  among  us  ;  and  as  to  government,  the  light  is  already  gone 
forth,  and  whilst  men  ought  to  be  careful  not  to  be  blinded  by  the 
excess  of  it,  as  at  a  certain  time  in  France,  when  every  thing  was 
Robespierean  violence,  they  ought  to  reverence,  and  even  toadoro 
it,  with  all  the  firmness  and  perseverance  that  true  wisdom  can 
inspire. 

I  pass  on  to  the  seventh  passage,  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 

Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  8,  v.  16.  "  When  the  evening  was  come, 
lf  they  brought  unto  him,  (Jesu*>)  many  that  were  possessed  with 
"  devils,  and  he  cast  out  the  spirit  with  his  word,  and  healed  all 
«'  that  were  sick— That  it  might  be  fulfilled,  which  was  spoken 
<e  by  Esaias,  (Isaiah)  the  prophet  saying,  himself  took  our  inftr- 
fe  mities,  and  bear  our  sicknesses." 

This  affair  of  people  being  possessed  by  devils,  and  of  casting 
them  out,  was  the  fable  of  the  day,  when  the  books  of  the  New? 
Testament  were  written.  It  had  not  existanceat  any  other  time. 
The  books  of  the  Old  Testament  mention  no  such  thing ;  the  peo 
ple  of  the  present  day  know  of  no  such  thing ;  nor  does  the  hisU* 


I'V.THg    NEW    TESTAMBWTY  2l 

ty  of  any  people  or  country  speak  of  such  a  thing.  It  starts  upon 
us  all  at  once  in  the  book  of  Matthew;  and  is  altogether  an  inven 
tion  of  the  New-Testament-makers  and  the  Christian  church. 
The  book  of  Matthew,  is  the  first  book  where  the  word  Devil  is 
mentioned,  as  a  being  in  the  singular  number.*  We  read  in  some  of 
the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  of  things  called  familiar  spirits,  the 
supposed  companions  of  people  called  witches  and  wizards.  It 
was  no  other  than  the  trick  of  pretended  conjurors  to  obtain  money 
from  credulous  and  ignorant  people  ;  or  the  fabricated  charge  of 
superstitious  malignancy  against  unfortunate  and  decripid  old  age. 

But  the  idea  of  a  familiar  spirit,  if  we  can  affix  any  idea  to  th« 
term,  is  exceedingly  different  to  that  of  being  possessed  by  a  devil. 
In  the  one  case  the  supposed  familiar  spirit  is  a  dextrious  agent, 
that  comes  and  goes  and  does  as  he  is  bidden :  in  the  other,  he  is  a 
turbulant  roaring  monster,  that  tears  and  tortures  the  body  into 
convulsions.  Reader,  whoever  thou  art,  put  thy  trust  in  thy  ere* 
ator,  make  use  of  the  reason  he  endowed  thee  with,  and  cast  from 
thee  all  such  fables. 

The  passage  alluded  to  by  Matthew,  for  as  a  quotation  it  is  false, 
is  in  Isaiah,  chap.  53,  v.  4.  which  is  as  follows; 

"  Surely  he  (the  person  of  whom  Isaiah  is  speaking,)  hath  borne 
"  our  griefs  and  carried  our  sorrows."  It  is  in  the  preter  tense. 

Here  is  nothing  about  casting  out  devils,  nor  curing  of  sickness 
es.  The  passage,  therefore,  so  far  from  being  a  prophecy  of  Christ, 
is  not  even  applicable  as  a  circumstance. 

Isaiah,  or  at  least  the  writer  of  the  book  that  bears  his  name* 
employs  the  whole  of  this  chap,  the  53,  in  lamenting  the  suffer 
ings  of  some  deceased  person  of  whom  he  speaks  very  pathetically. 
It  is  a  monody  on  the  death  of  a  friend  ;  but  he  mentions  not  the 
name  of  the  person,  nor  gives  any  circumstance  of  him  by  which 

*  The  word  devil  is  a  personification  of  the  word  w it, 


22  AN   EXAMINATION    OF    THE    ? ASSA6E9 

he  can  be  personally  known  5  and  it  is  this  silence,  wliich  is  evt- 
dence  of  nothing,  that  Matthew  has  laid  hold  of,  to  put  the  name 
of  Christ  to  it;  as  if  the  chiefs  of  the  Jews,  whose  sorrows  were 
then  great,  and  the  times  they  lived  in  big  with  danger,  were  never 
thinking  about  their  own  affairs,  nor  the  fate  of  their  own  friends., 
"but  were  continually  running  a  Wild-rGoose  chase  into  futurity. 

To  make  a  monody  into  a  prophecy  is  an  absurdity.  The  char 
acters  and  circumstances  of  men,  even  in  different  ages  of  the 
world,  are  so  much  alike,  that  what  is  said  of  one,  may  with  pro* 
priety  be  said  of  many ;  but  this  fitness  does  not  make  the  passage 
into  a  prophecy ;  and  none  but  an  impostor,  or  a  bigot,  would  call 
it  so. 

Isaiah,  in  deploring  the  hard  fate  and  loss  of  his  friend,  mentions 
nothing  of  him  but  what  the  human  lot  of  man  is  subject  10.  AH 
the  cases  he  states  of  him,  his  persecutions,  his  imprisonment,  his 
patience  in  suffering,  and  his  perseverance  in  principle,  are  all 
within  the  line  of  nature;  they  belong  exclusively  to  none,  and 
may  with  justness  be  said  of  many.  But  if  Jesus  Christ  was  the 
person  the  church  represents  him  to  be,  that  which  would  exclu 
sively  apply  to  him,  must  be  something  that  could  not  apply  to  any 
other  person  ;  something  beyond  the  line  of  nature  ;  something  be 
yond  the  lot  of  mortal  man ;  and  there  are  no  such  expressions  in 
this  chapter,  nor  any  other  chapter  in  the  Old  Testament. 

It  is  no  exclusive  discription  to  say  of  a  person,  as  is  said  of  the 
person,  Isaiah  is  lamenting  in  this  chapter.  "  He  zvas  oppressed, 
*'  and  he  was  afflicted,  yet  he  opened  not  his  mouth)  he  is  brought  as  a 
"  Lamb  to  the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  before  his  sheererst  is  dumb. 
"  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth."  This  may  be  said  of  thousands  of 
persons,  who  "have  suffered  oppression  and  unjust  death  with  pa 
tience,  silence  and  perfect  resignation. 

Grotius,  whom  the  bishop  esteems  a  most  learned  man,  and 


Iff <         IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.    ^  23 

who  certainly  was  so,  supposes  that  the  person  of  whom  Isaiah 
is  speaking,  is  Jeremiah.  Grotius  is  led  into  this  opinion,  from, 
the  agreement  there  is  between  the  discription  given  by  Isaiah, 
and  the  case  of  Jeremiah,  as  stated  in  the  book  that  bears  his  name. 
If  Jeremiah  was  an  innocent  man,  and  not  a  traitor  in  the  interest 
of"  Nebuchadnezer,  when  Jerusalem  was  besieged,  his  case  was 
hard  ;  He  was  accused  by  his  countrymen,  was  persecuted,  op 
pressed,  and  imprisoned,  and  he  says  of  himseU,  (see  Jeremiah 
chap.  1 1,  v.  19.)  "  Bat  as  for  me,  I  was  like  a  lamb  or  an  Ox 
(t  that  is  brought  to  the  slaughter." 

1  should  be  inclined  to  the  same  opinion  with  Grotius,  had  Isai- 
"  ah  lived  at  the  time  when  Jeremiah  underwent  the  cruelties  of 
which  he  speaks;  but  Isaiah  died  about  50  years  before;  and  it 
is  of  a  person  of  his  own  time,  whose  case  Isaiah  is  lamenting  in 
the  chapter  in  question,  and  which  imposition  and  bigotry,  more 
than  seven  hundred  years  afterwards,  perverted  into  a  prophecy 
•fa  person  they  call  Jesus  Christ. 

I  pass  on  to  the  eighth  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  1 2,  v.  1 4.  "  Then  the  Pharisees  went  out  and 
*'  held  a  council  against  him,  how  they  might  destroy  him — But 
*'  when  Jesus  knew  it  he  withdrew  himself;  and  great  numbers 
"  followed  him  and  he  healed  them  all — and  he  charged  them  they 
"  should  not  make  him  known  :  That  it  might  be  fulfilled  which 
"  was  spoken  by  Esaias  (Isaiah)  the  prophet,  saying, 

"  Behold  my  servant  whom  I  have  chosen  ;  my  beloved  in  whom 
"  my  soul  is  well  pleased,  I  will  put  my  spirit  upon  him,  and  he  shall 
"shewjudgment  to  the  gentiles — he  shall  not  strive  nor  cry,  neither 
"shall  any  man  hear  his  voice  in  the  streets — a  bruised  reed  shall 
fi  he  not  break,  and  srnoaking  flax  shall  he  not  quench  till  he  sends 
**  forth  judgment  unto  victory — and  in  his  name  shall  the  Gentiles 
•*  trust/*  • 


£4  AN    EXAMINATION    «F    THE    PA*SAGE* 

In  the  first  place,  this  passage  hath  not  the  least  relation  to  the 
purpose  for  which  it  is  quoted. 

Matthew  says,  that  the  Pharisees  held  a  council  against  Jesus 
io  destroy  him — that  Jesus  withdrew  himself— that  great  numbers 
followed  him— -that  he  healed  them—and  that  he  charged  them 
they  should  not  make  him  known. 

But  the  passage  Matthew,  has  quoted  as  being  fulfilled  by  these 
€?rcu  instances,  dos  not  so  much  as  apply  to  any  one  of  them.  It 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  Pharisees,  holding  a  council  to  distroy 
Jesus — with  his  withdrawing  himself— with  great  numbers  follow. 
Jng  him — with  his  healing  them — nor  with  his  charging  them  not 
to  make  him  known. 

The  purpose  for  which  the  passage  is  quoted,  and  the  passage 
itself,  are  as  remote  from  each  other,  as  nothing  from  something. 
But  the  case  is,  that  people  have  been  so  long  in  the  habit  of  read 
ing  the  books  called  the  Bible  and  Testament  with  their  eyes  shut, 
and  their  senses  locked  up,  that  the  most  stupid  inconsistencies 
have  passed  on  them  for  truth,  and  imposition  for  prophecy.  The 
all  wise  creator  hath  been  dishonoured  by  being  made  the  author 
of  Fable,  and  the  human  mind  degraded  by  believing  it. 

In  this  passage,  as  in  that  last  mentioned,  the  name  of  the  person 
of  whom  the  passage  speaks,  is  not  given,  and  we  are  left  in  the 
dark  respecting  him.  It  is  this  defect  in  the  history,  that  bigotry 
and  imposition  have  laid  hold  of,  to  call  it  prophecy. 

Had  Isaiah  lived  in  the  time  of  Cvrus,  the  passage  would  dis- 
criptively  apply  to  him.  As  king  of  Persia,  his  authority  was  great 
among  the  Gentiles,  and  it  is  of  such  a  character  the  passage 
speaks,  and  his  friendship  to  the  Jews  whom  he  liberated  from 
captivity, and  who  might  !hen  bs  compared  to  a  bruised  reed,  was 
extensive.  But  this  discription  does  no*  apply  to  Je^us  Christ, 
•who  had  no  authority  among  the  Gentiles ;  and  as  to  his  own  coun- 


IN  THE  NEW  TESTAMENT;,  $.& 

trymen,  figuratively  described  by  the  bruised  reed,  it  was  they  who 
crusified  him.  Neither  can  it  be  said  of  him  that  he  did  not  cry, 
and  that  his  voice  was  not  heard  in  the  street.  As  a  preacher  it 
was  his  business  to  be  heard,  and  we  are  told  that  he  travelled 
about  the  country  for  that  purpose.  Matthew  has  given  a  long 
sermon,  which  (if  his  authority  is  good,  but  which  is  much  to  be 
doubted  since  he  imposes  so  much,)  Jesus  preached  to  a  multitude 
upon  a  mountain,  and  it  would  be  a  quibble  to  say  that  a  mountain, 
is  not  a  street,  since  it  is  a  place  equally  as  public. 

The  last  verse  in  the  passage  (the  4th,)  as  it  stands  in  Isaiah, 
and  which  Matthew  has  not  quoted,  says,  "  He  shall  not  fail  nor 
"  be  discouraged  till  he  have  set  judgment  in  the  Earth  and  the 
"  Isles  shall  wait  for  his  law."  This  also  applies  to  Cyrus.  He 
was  not  discouraged,  he  did  not  fail,  he  conquered  all  Babylon,  li 
berated  the  Jews,  and  established  laws.  But  this  cannot  be  said 
of  Jesus  Christ,  who,  in  the  passage  before  us,  according  to  Mat 
thew,  withdrew  himself  for  fear  of  the  Pharisees,  and  charged 
the  people  that  followed  him  not  to  make  it  known  where  he  was ; 
and  who,  according  to  other  parts  oi  the  Testament,  was  continu 
ally  moving  from  place  to  place  to  avoid  being  apprehended.* 


*  In  the  second  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  I  have  shewn  that 
the  book  ascribed  to  Isaiah  is  not  only  miscellaneous  as  to  matter, 
but  as  to  authorship;  that  there  are  parts  in  it  which  could  not  be 
written  by  Isaiah,  because  they  speak  of  things  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  after  he  was  dend.  The  instance  I  have  given  of  this, 
in  that  work,  corresponds  with  the  subject  I  am  upon,  at  least  a 
little  better  than  Matlluw's  introduction  and  his  quotatum. 

Isaiah  lived,  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  in  the  time  of  Hezekiah, 
and  it  was  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  from  the  death  ot 
Hezekiah  to  the  first  year  of  the  reign  of  Cyrus  when  Cyrus 
published  a  proclamation,  which  is  given  in  the  first  chapter  of  the 
book  of  Ezra,  for  the  return  of  the  Jews  to  Jerusalem.  It  cannot 
be  doubted,  at  least  it  ought  not  to  be  doubted,  that  the  Jews  would 
ieel  an  affectionate  gratitude  for  this  act  of  benevolent  justice,  and 
it  is  natural  they  w  >u!d  express  that  gratitude  in  the  customary 
stile,,  bombastical  and  hyperbolical  as  it  was,  which  they  used  on 

F, 


2#  AN    EXAMINATION    OP    THE    PASSAGES 

Buf  it  is  immaterial  to  us,  at  this  distance  of  time,  to  know 
who  the  person  was:  It  is  sufficient  to  the  purpose  I  am  upon, 
that  of  detecting  fraud  and  falsehood,  to  know  who  it  was  not, 
and  to  shew  it  was  not  the  person  called  Jesus  Christ. 

I  pass  on  to  the  ninth  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  21,  v.  1.  "  And  when  they  drew  nigh  unto 
*'  Jerusalem,  and  were  come  to  Bethphage,  unto  the  mount  of 
"  Olives,  then  Jesus  sent  two  of  his  disciples — saying,  urUo  them, 
''go  into  the  village  over  against  you,  and  straightway  ye  shall 
"  find  an  Ass  tied,  and  a  colt  with  her,  loose  them  and  bring  them 


extraordinary  occasions,  and  which  was,  and  still  is,  in  practice 
with  all  the  eastern  nations. 

The  instance  to  which  I  refer,  and  which  is  given  in  the  second 
part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  is  the  last  verse  of  the  44th  chapter  and 
the  beginning  of  the  45th — in  these  words  ;  "  That  saith  of  Cyrus 
*'  he  is  my  shepherd  and  shall  perform  all  my  pleasure :  even  saying 
"  to  Jerusalem  t/iou  shall  he  built,  and  to  the  Temnle,  thy  foundation 
"  shall  be  laid'.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  to  his  anoifed,  to  Cyrus,  whose 
"  rivfit  hand  f  hare  holden  to  subdue  nations  before  him  ;  and,  1  will 
"  loose  the  loins  of  kings,  to  onen  before  him  the  two  leaved  gates  and 
"  the  gates  shall  nnt  be  sftiit" 

This  complimentary  address  is  in  the  present'  tense,  which  shews 
that  the  things  of  which  it  speaks  were  in  existunce  at  the  time  of 
writing  it;  and  consequently,,  that  the  author  must  have  been  at 
least  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  later  than  Isaiah,  and  that  the 
book  which  bears  his  name  is  a  compilation.  The  proverbs  called 
Solomon's  and  the  Psalms  called  Dnvid's,  are  of  the  same  kind. 
The  two  last  verses  of  the  second  book  of  Chronicles,  and  the  three 
first  verses  of  the  first  chapter  of  Ezra,  are  word  for  word  the 
same  ;  which  shew  that  the  compilers  of  the  Bible  mixe  I  the  wri 
tings  of  different  authors  together,  and  put  them  under  some  com 
mon  head. 

As  we  have  here  an  instance  in  the  44  and  45  chapters  of  the 
introduction  of  the  name  of  Cyrus  into  a  book  to  which  it  cannot 
belong,  it  affords  good  ground  to  conclude,  that  the  passage  in  the 
42d.  chapter,  in  which  the  character  of  Cyrus  is  given  with 
out  his  name,  has  been  introduced  in  like  manner,  and  that  the  per 
son  there  spoken  of  is  Cyrus. 


Itf    THE    NEW  TESTAMENT.  27 

•**  unto  me, — and  if  any  man  say  ought  to  you,  ye  shall  say,  the 
*'  Lord  hath  need  of  them,  and  straightway  he  will  send 
"  them. 

"  AH  this  was  done  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was  spoken 
M  by  the  prophets,  saying.  Tdlyc  the  daughter  ofZion,  behold  thy 
"  king  corneth  unto  thee  nieek,  and  setting  on  an  Ass,  and  a  colt  the 
"foal  of  an  Ass." 

Poor  Ass!  let  it  be  some  consolation  amidst  all  thy  sufferings, 
that  if  the  heathen  world  erected  a  Bear  into  a  ^constellation,  th« 
Christian  world  has  elevated  thee  into  a  prophecy. 

This  passage  is  in  Zechariah,  chap.  9.  v.  9.  and  is  one  of  th« 
whi ens  of  friend  Zechariah  to  congratulate  his  countrymen  who 
were  then  returned  from  captivity  in  Babylon  and  himself  with 
them,  to  Jerusalem.  It  has  no  concern  with  any  other  subject. 
It  is  strange  that  apostles,  priests,  and  comentators,  never  permit, 
or  never  suppose,  the  Jews  to  be  speaking  of  their  own  affairs. 
Every  thing  in  the  Jewish  books  is  perverted  and  distorted  into 
meanings  never  intended  by  the  writers.  Even  the  poor  ass  must 
not  be  a  jew-ass  but  a  cliristian-ass.  I  wonder  they  did  not  make 
an  apostle  of  him,  or  a  bishop,  or  at  least  make  him  speak  and 
prophesy,  He  could  have  lifted  up  his  voice  as  loud  as  any  of 
them. 

Zechariah,  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  book,  indulges  himself  in 
several  whims  on  the  joy  of  getting  back  to  Jerusalem.  He  says 
at  the  8th  verse,  «'  I  saw  by'night  (Zechariah  was  a  sharp  sighted 
((  seer)  and  behold  a  man  setting  on  a  red  horse  (yes  reader,  a  red 
"  horse}  and  he  stood  among  the  myrtle  trees  that  were  in  the 
"  bottom,  and  behind  him  were  red  horses,  speckled  and  white." 
He  says  nothing  about  green  horses,  nor  blue  horses,  perhaps  be* 
cause  it  is  difficult  to  distinguisli  green  from  blue  by  night,  but  a 
Christian  can  have  no  doubt  they  were  there,  because  "faith  i& 
*'  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen" 


28  AN  EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

Zechariah  then  introduces  an  angel  among  his  horses,  but  he 
does  not  tell  us  what  colour  the  angel  was  of,  whether  black  or 
white,  nor  whether  he  came  to  buy  horses,  or  only  to  look  at 
them  as  curiosities,  for  certainly  they  were  of  that  kind.  Be  this 
however  as  it  may,  he  enters  into  conversation  with  this  angel  on 
the  joy ful  affair  of  getting  back  to  Jerusalem,  and  he  saith  at  the 
*6th  verse  "  Therefore,  thus  saith  the  Lord,  1  AM  RETURNED 
'»  to  Jerusalem  with  mercies-,  my  house  shall  be  built  in  it  saith  the 
"  Lord  of  hosts,  and  a  line  shall  be  stretched  forth  upon  Jerusalem." 
An  expression  signifying  the  rebuilding  the  city. 

All  this,  whimsical  and  imaginary  as  it  is,  sufficiently  proves  that 
it  was  the  entry  of  the  Jews  into  Jerusalem  from  captivity,  and 
not  the  entry  of  Jesus  Christ  seven  hundred  years  afterwards,  that 
is  the  subject  upon  which  Zechariah  is  always  speaking. 

As  to  the  expression  ofriding  upon  an  ass,  which  commentators 
represent  as  a  sign  of  humility  in  Jesus  Christ,  the  case  is,  he  ne 
ver  was  so  well  mounted  before.  The  asses  of  those  countries  are 
large  and  well  proportioned,  and  were  anciently  the  chief  of  riding; 
animals.  Their  beasts  of  burden,  and  which  served  also  for  the 
conveyance  of  the  poor,  were  camels  and  dromedaries.  We  read 
in  Judges  chap.  10.  v.  4.  that  "  Jair,  (one  of  the  judges  of  Israel) 
"  had  thirty  sons  that  rode  on  thirty  ass-colts,  and  they  had 
?'  thirty  cities."  But  commentators  destort  every  thing. 

There  is  besides  very  reasonable  ground  to  conclude  that  this 
story  of  Jesus  riding  publicly  into  Jerusalem,  accompanied,  as  it  is 
said  at  the  8th  and  9th  verses,  by  a  great  multitude,  shouting  and 
rejoicing  and  spreading  their  garments  by  the  way,  is  altogether 
9  story  destitute  of  truth. 

In  the  last  passage  called  a  prophesy  that  I  examined,  Jesus  is 
represented  as  withdrawing,  that  is,  running  away,  and  concealing 
himself  for  fear  of  being  apprehended,  and  charging  the  people 
that  were  with  him  not  to  make  him  known,  No  new  circum* 


IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  2p 

stance  had  arisen  in  the  interim  to  change  his  condition  for  the  bet 
ter;  yet  here  he  is  represented  as  making  his  public  entry  into  the 
same  city,  from  which  he  had  fled  for  safety.  The  two  cases  con 
tradict  each  other  so  much,  that  if  both  are  not  false,  one  of  them 
at  least  can  scarcely  be  true.  For  my  own  part,  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  one  word  of  historical  truth  in  the -whole  book.  I  look  up 
on  it  at  best  to  be  a  romance ;  the  principal  personage  of  which  is 
an  imaginary  or  allegorical  character  founded  upon  some  tale,  and 
in  which  the  moral  is  in  many  parts  good,  and  the  narrative  part 
yery  badly  and  blunderingly  written, 

I  pass  on  to  the  10th  passage  called  a  prophesy  of  Jesus  Christ, 

Matthew,  chap.  26.  v.  5 1 .  "  And  behold  one  of  them  which 
**  was  with  Jesus  (meaning  Peter)  stretched  out  his  hand,  and  drew 
**  his  sword,  and  struck  a  servant  of  the  high  priest,  and  smote  off 
<*  his  ear.  Then  said  Jesus  unto  him.  Put  up  again  thy  sword 
*'  into  its  place,  for  all  they  that  take  the  sword  shall  perish  with 
"  the  sword — Thinkest  thou  that  I  cannot  now  pray  to  my  father 
*  and  he  shall  presently  give  me  more  than  twelveJegions  of  angels, 
"  But  how  then  shall  the  scriptures  be  fulfilled  that  thus  it  must  be, 
#'  — In  that  same  hour  Jesus  said  to  the  multitudes  are  ye  come 
"  out  as  against  a  thief  with  swords  and  with  staves  for  to  take 
"  me  ?  I  sat  daily  with  you  teaching  in  the  temple,  and  ye  laid 
'•*  no  hold  on  me.  But  all  this  was  done  that  the  scriptures  of  the 
"  prophets  might  be  fulfilled." 

This  loose  and  general  manner  of  speaking  admits  neither  of  de 
tection  nor  of jaroof.  Here  is  no  quotation  given,  nor  the  name 
of  any  bible  author  mentioned,  to  which  reference  can  be  had. 

There  are,  however,  some  high  improbabilities  against  the 
truth  of  the  account. 

First — It  is  not  probable  that  the  Jews  who  were  then  a  con 
quered  people  and  under  subjection  to  the  Romans  should  be  per 
mitted  to  wear  swords, 


SO  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSACfES 

2dly — If  Peter  had  attacked  the  servant  of  the  high  priest  am! 
cut  off  his  ear,  he  would  have  been  immediately  taken  up  by  the 
guard  that  took  up  his  master  and  sent  to  prison  with  him. 

3dly — What  sort  of  disciples  and  preaching  apostles  must  those 
of  Christ  have  been  that  wore  swords? 

4tlily— -This  scene  is  represented  to  have  taken  place  the  same 
"tsfemng  of  what  is  called  the  Lord's  supper,  which  makes,  accord 
ing  to  the  ceremony  of  it,  the  inconsistency  of  wearing  swords  the 
greater. 

I  pass  on  to  the  eleventh  passage  called  a  prophecy  of  Jesu« 
Christ. 

Matthew,  chap.  27 .  v.  3.  "  Then  Judas  which  had  betrayed 
"  him,  when  he  saw  that  he  was  condemned,  repented  himself, 
*'  and  brought  again  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  to  the  chief  priests 
*'  and  elders — saying,  I  have  sinned  in  that  I  have  betrayed  the 
^'  innocent  blood.  And  they  said  what  is  that  to  us,  see  thou  to 
•*'  to  that. — And  he  cast  down  the  pieces  of  silver  and  departed  and 
"  went  and  hanged  himself — And  the  chief  priests  took  the  silver 
**  pieces  and  said,  it  is  not  lawful  to  put  them  in -the  treasury  be- 
•'  cause  it  is  the  price  of  blood — And  they  took  counsel  and  bought 
"with  tli em  the  potters  field  to  bury  strangers  in — Wherefore 
•f  that  field  iscalled  the  field  of  blood  unto  this  day.— Then  wasful- 
"  filled  that  which  was  spoken  by  Jeremiah  the  prophet,  saying, 
"  And  they  took  the  thirty  pie"ces  of  silver,  the  price  of  him  that 
"  was  valued,  whom  they  of  the  children  of  Israel  did  value,  and 
"  gave  them  for  the  potters  field  as  the  Lord  appointed  me." 

This  is  a  most  bare-faced- piece  of  imposition.  The  pas 
sage  in  Jeremian  which  speaks  of  the  purchase  of  a  field,  has  no 
more  to  do  with  the  case  to  which  Matthew  applies  it,  than  it  has 
to  do  with  the  purchase  of  lands  in  America.  I  will  recite  tfete 
whole  passage. 


iy    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  31 

Jeremiah,  chap.  32.  v.  6.  "  And  Jeremiah  said,  the  word  of 

*  the  Lord  came  unto  me,  saying — Behold  Hanameil  the  son  of 
"  Shallum  thine  uncle  shall  come  unto  thee,  saying,  buy  thee  my 
'"  field  that  is  in  Anathoth,  for  the  right  of  redemption  is  thine  to 
"  buy  it — So  Hanameil  mine  uncle's  son  came  to  me  in  the  court 
4*  of  the  prison,  according  to  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  said  un- 
"  to  me,  buy  my  field  I  pray  thee  that  is  in  Anathoth,  which  is  in 
€t  the  the  country  of  Benjamin,  for  the  right  of  inheritance  is  thine, 
"  and  the  redemption  is  thine;  buy  it  for  thyself.     Then  I  knew 
*'  this  was  the  word  of  the  Lord — And  I  bought  the  field  of  Ha- 
"  nameil  mine  uncle's  son  that  was  in  Anathoth,  and  weighed  him 
vi  the  money  even  seventeen  shekels  of  silver — and  I  subscribed 
"  the  evidence  and  sealed  it  ;  and  took   witnesses  and  weighed 
"  him  the  money  in  balances.— So  I  took  the  evidence  of  the  pur- 
<•  chase,  both  that  which   was  sealed  according  to   the  law  and 
"  custom,  and  that  which  was  open — and  1  gave  the  evidence  of 
"  the  purchase  unto  Baruck,  the  son  of  Neriah,  the  son  of  Maasei- 
**'  ath  in  the  sight  of  Hanameil  mine  uncle's  son,  and  in  the  pre-« 
«'  sence  of  the  witnesses  that  subscribed,  before  all  the  Jews  that 
"  sat  in  the  court  of  the  prison — and  I  charged  Barack  before  them, 

*  saying,  Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel  :  Take 
•*'  these  evidences,  this  evidence  of  the  purchase,  both  which  is 
*'  sealed,  and  this  evidence  which  is  open,  and  put  them  in  an 
-'  earthen  vessel  that  they  may  continue  many  days— for  thus  saitfi 
6i  the  Lord  of  hosts,  the  God  of  Israel,,  houses  and  fields,  and  vine- 
~  yards,  shall  be  possessed  again  in  tHft  land." 

I  forbear  making  any  remark  on  thi?  abominable  imposition  of 
Matthew.  The  thing  glaringly  speaks  for  itself.  It  is  priests  and. 
commentators  that  I  rather  ought  to  censure  for  having  preached 
falshood  so  long,  and  kept  people  in  darkness  with  respect  to  those 
impositions.  I  am  not  contending  with  these  men  upon  points  of 
doctrine,  for  I  know  that  sophistry  has  always  a  city  of  refuge.  I 
am  speaking  of  facis ;  for  wherever  the  thing  called  a  fact  is  a  falser 


32  AN    EXAMINATION   OF    THE    PASSAGES 

hood,  the  faith  founded  upon  it  is  delusion,  and  the  doctrine  fahed 
upon  it,  not  true.  Ah,  reader,  put  thy  trust  in  thy  creator  and 
thou  wilt  be  safe ;  but  if  thou  trustest  to  the  books  called  the  scrip 
tures  thou  trustest  to  the  rotten  staff  of  fable  and  falsehood.  But  I 
return  to  my  subject. 

There  is  among  the  whims  and  reveries  of  Zechariah,  mention 
made  of  thirty  pieces  of  silver  given  to  a  Potter.  They  can  hard 
ly  have  been  soStupid  as  to  mistake  a  potter  for  a  field  ;  and  if  they 
had,  the  passage  in  Zechariah  has  no  more  to  do  with  Jesus,  Ju 
das,  and  the  field  to  bury  strangers  in,  .than  that  already  quoted. 
I  will  recite  the  passage. 

Zechariah,  chap.  1 1 .  v.  7.  "  And  I  will  feed  the  flock  of  slaugh- 
"  ter,  even  you,  O  poor  of  the  flock,  and  I  took  unto  me  two 
"  staves ;  the  one  I  called  Beauty  and  the  other  I  called  Bunds,  and 
tf  I  fed  the  flock. — Three  shepherds  also  I  cut  ofF  in  one  month ; 
"  and  my  soul  loathed  them,  and  their  soul  also  abhorred  me.— 
''Then  said  I,  I  will  not  feed  you;  that  which  dieth,  let  it  die; 
"  and  that  which  is  to  be  cut  off,  let  it  be  cut  off,  and  let  the  rest 
"  eat  every  one  the  flesh  of  another. — And  I  took  my  staff,  even 
"  Scanty t  and  cut  it  asunder  that  I  might  break  my  covenant  which 
"  1  had  made  with  all  the  people. — And  it  was  broken  in  that  day; 
"  and  so  the  poor  of  the  flock  who  waited  upon  me  knew  that  it 
"  was  the  word  of  the  Lord. 

"  And  I  said  unto  them,  if  ye  think  good  give  me  my  price,  and 
"if  not,  forbear.  So  they  weighed  for  my  price  thirty  pieces  of 
"silver. — And  the  Lord  said  unto  me,  cast  it  unto  the/Krffef;  a 
"  goodly  price  that  I  was  prised  at  of  them  ;  and  I  took  the  thirty 
"  pieces  of  silver  and  cast  them  to  the  potter  in  the  house  of  the 
"  Lord. 


IN    THE    NKW    TESTAMENT;.  $$ 

49  When  I  cut  asunder  mine  other  staff  even  Bands  that  I  might 
"  break  the  brotherhood  between  Judah  and  Israel."* 

There  is  no  making  either  head  or  tail  of  this  incoherent  gib 
berish.  His  two  staves,  one  called  Beauty,  and  the  other  Bands, 
is  so  much  like  a  fairy  tale  that  I  doubt  if  it  had  any  higher  origin. 
There  is,  however,  no  part  that  has  the  least  relation  to  the  case 


*  Whiston,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Old  Testament  says,  that  the  pas 
sage  of  Zachariah,  of  which  I  have  spoken  was  in  thecopies  of  the 
Bible  of  ihe  first  century,  in  the  book  of  Jeremiah,  from  whence, 
says  he,  it  was  taken  and  inserted  without  coherence,  in  that  of 
Zachariah— well,  let  it  be  so,  it  does  not  make  the  case  a  whit  the 
better  tor  the  New-Testament ;  but  it  makes  the  case  a  great  deal 
the  worse  for  the  old.  Because  it  shews,  as  I  have  mentioned 
respecting  some  passages  in  the  book  ascribed  to  Isaiah,  that  the 
works  of  different  authors  have  been  so  mixed  and  confounded 
together  they  cannot  now  be  discriminated,  except  where  they 
are  historical,  chronological,  or  biographical  as  is  the  enterpolation 
in  Isaiah.  It  is  the  name  of  Cyrus  inserted  where  it  could  not  be 
inserted,  as  the  man.  was  not  in  existance  till  one  hundred  and  fif 
ty  years  after  the  time  of  Isaiah,  that  detects  the  interpolation  and 
the  blunder  with  it. 

Whiston  was  a  man  of  great  literary  learning,  and  what  is  of 
much  higher  degree,  of  deep  scientific  learning.  He  was  one  of 
the  best  and  most  celebrated  mathematicians  of  his  time,  for  which, 
lie  was  made  professor  of  mathematics  of  the  university  of  Cam 
bridge.  He  wrote  so  much  in  defence  of  the  Old  Testament, 
and  of  what  he  calk  prophesies  of  Jesus  Christ,  that  at  last  he  be 
gan  to  suspect  the  truth  of  the  scriptures  and  wrote  against  them  : 
for  it  is  only  those  who  examine  them  that  see  into  the  imposi 
tion.  Those  who  believe  them  most  are  those  who  know  least 
about  them. 

Whiston  after  writing  so  much  in  defence  of  the  scriptures  was 
at  last  prosecuted  for  writing  against  them.  It  Was  this  that  gave 
occasion  to  Swift,  in  his  ludicrous  Epigram  on  Ditton  and  Whis- 
ton,  each  of  which  set  up  to  find  out  the  longitude,  to  call  the  one 
good  master  Ditton,  and  the  other  Wicked  Will  Whiston.  But  as 
Swift  was  a  great  associate  with  the  Free-thinkers  of  those  days, 
such  as  Bohngbroke,  Pope,  and  others,  who  did  not  believe  the 
books  called  tne  scriptures,  there  is  no  certainty  whether  he  witti 
ly  called  him  wicked  for  defending  the  scriptures,  or  for  writing 
against  them.  The  known  character  of  8wiff  ^eeidss  for  tbs 
former. 


$4<  AN    EXAMINATION    Ot    THE    PASSAGES 

stated  in  Matthew  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  the  reverse  of  it.  Here 
the  thirty  pieces  of  silver,  whatever  it  -was  for,  is  called  -A  goodly 
price,  it  was  as  much  as  the  thing  was  worth,  and  according  to  the 
language  of  the  day,  was  approved  of  by  the  Lord,  and  the  money 
given  to  the  potter  in  the  house  of  the  Lord.  I  n  the  case  of  Jesus 
and  Judas,  as  stated  in  Matthew,  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  were 
the  price  of  blood  ;  the  transaction  was  condemned  by  the  Lord, 
and  the  money  when  refunded  was  refused  admitance  into  the 
treasury.  Every  thing  in  the  two  cases  is  the  reverse  of  each 
other.. 

Besides  this,  a  very  different  and  direct  contrary  account  to 
that  of  Matthew  is  given  ofjthe  affair  of  Ju/'as,  in  the  book  called 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  according  to  that  book  the  case  is,  that  so 
far  from  Judas  repenting,  and  returning  the  money,  and  the  high 
priests  buying  a  field  with  it  to  bury  strangers  in,  Judas  kept  the 
money  and  bought  afield  with  it  for  himself;  and  instead  of  hang 
ing  himself  as  Matthew  says,  that  he  fell  headlong  and  burst  asun- 
.der — some  commentators  endeavour  to  get  over  one  part  of  the 
contradiction  by  rediculously  supposing  that  Judas  hanged  himself 
first  and  the  rope  broke. 

Acts  chap.  I,  v.  16.  "  Men  and  brethren,  this  scripture  must 
'*  needs  have  been  fulfilled  which  the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  mouth  of 
"  David  spake  before  concerning  Judas,  which  was  guide  to  them 
"  that  took  Jesus.  (David  says  not  a  word  about  Judas)  v.  17, 
"  for  he  (Judas)  was  numbered  among  us  and  obtained  part  of  our 
"  ministry. 

<f  y .  F  8 .  Now  this  man  purchased  afield  with  the  reward  of  iniquity, 
"  and  falling  headlong  he  burst  as  sunder  in  the  midst ,  and  his  bowels 
ft  gushed  out."  Is  it  not  a  species  of  blasphemy  to  call  the  New- 
Testament  revealed  religion,  when  we  see  in  it  such  contradictions 
and  absurdities  ? 


IN    T«E    NEW    TESTAMENT.  $& 

I  pass  on  to  the  12th  passage  called  a  prophesy  of  Jesus  Christ, 

Matthew  chap.  27,  v.  35.  "  And  they  crucified  him  and  part- 
*'  ed  his  garments  casting  lots;  that  it  might  be  fulfilled  which  was 
"  spoken  by  the  prophet,  They  parted  my  garments  among  them  and 
"  upon  my  vesture  did  they  cast  lots."  This  expression  is  in  the  22d 
Psalm  v.  1 8.  The  writer  of  that  Psalm,  (whoever  he  was,  for  the 
Psalms  are  a  collection  and  not  the  work  of  one  man,)  is  spealqng 
of  himself  and  of  his  own  case  and  not  of  that  of  another.  He  be 
gins  this  Psalm  with  the  words  which  the  New-Testament  writers 
ascribe  to  Jesus  Christ.  "My  God,  my  God,  why  hast  thoufwsa- 
"  ken  we"— words  which  might  be  uttered  by  a  complaining  man 
without  an)  great  impropriety,  but  very  improperly  from  the  mouth 
of  a  reputed  God, 

The  picture  which  the  writer  draws  of  his  own  situation  in  this 
Psalm,  is  gloomy  enough.  He  is  not  prophesying,  but  complaining- 
of  his  own  hard  case.  He  represents  himself  as  surrounded  by , 
enemies  and  beset  by  persecutions  of  every  kind  ;  and  by  way  of 
shewing  the  inveteracy  ot  his  persecutors,  he  sajs  at  the  18  verse, 
Tliey  part  my  garments  among  them  and  cast  lots  upon  my  vesture. 
The  expression  is  in  the  present  tense ;  and  is  the  same  as  to  say, 
they  pursue  me  even  to  the  clothes  upon  my  back,  and  dispute  how 
they  shall  divide  them  ;  besides,  the  word  vesture  does  not  always 
mean  clothing  of  any  kind,  \w\.  property,  or  rather  the  admitting  a 
man  to,  or  investing  him  with  property  ;  and  as  it  is  used  in  tin's 
Psalm  distinct  from  the  word  garment,  it  appears  to  be  used  m  this 
sense.  But  Jesus  had  no  property;  for  they  make  him  to  say  of 
himself)  "The  foxes  have  holes  and  the  birds  of  the  air  have  nests, 
"  but  the  son  of  man  hath  not  where  to  luy  his  head." 

But  be  this  as  it  may,  if  we  permit  ourselves  to  suppose  the  Al 
mighty  would  condescend  to  tell,  by  what  is  called  the  spirit  of 
prophesy,  what  would  come  to  pass  in  some  future  age  of  the 


Sfr  AN    EXAMINATION    «F    THE   PASSAGE* 

worlclit  is  an  injury  to  our  own  faculties,  and  to  our  ideas  oi"his 
greatness,  to  imagine  it  would  be  about  an  old  coat,  or  an  old  pair 
of  breeches,  or  about  any  thing  which  the  common  accidents  of 
life,  or  the  quarrels  that  attend  it,  exhibit  every  day. 

That  which  is  within  the  power  of  man  to  do,  or  in  his  will  not 
to  do,  is  not  a  subject  for  prophesy,  even  if  there  were  such  a  thing  j 
because  it  cannot  carry  with  it  any  evidence  of  divine  power,  or 
dhv  ne  interposition.  The  ways  of  God  are  not  the  ways  of  men. 
That  which  an  almighty  power  performs,  or  wills,  is  not  withm 
the  circle  of  human  power  to  do,  or  to  controul.  But  any  execu 
tioner  and  his  assistants  might  quarrel  about  dividing  the  garments 
of  a  sufferer,  or  divide  them  without  quarreling,  and  by  that 
means  fulfil  the  thing  called  a  prophesy,  or  set  it  aside. 

In  the  passages  before  examined,  I  have  exposed  the  falshood  of 
them.  In  this  I  exhibit  its  degrading  meanness,  as  an  insult  to  the 
creator  and  an  injury  to  human  reason. 

£lere  end  the  passages  called  prophesies  by  Matthew. 

Matthew  concludes  his  book  by  saying,  that  when  Christ  ex- 
pired  on  the  cross,  the  rocks  rent,  the  graves  opened,  and  the  bo 
dies  of  many  of  the  saints  arose;  and  Mark  says  there  was  dark* 
uess  over  the  land  from  the  fixth  hour  until  the  ninth.  They  pro 
duce  no  prophesy  for  this.  But  had  these  things  been  facts,  they 
•would  have  been  a  proper  subject  for  prophesy,  because  none  but 
an  almighty  power  could  have  inspired  a  fore  knowledge  of  them, 
and  afterwards  fulfilled  them.  Since,  then,  there  is  no  such  pro 
phesy,  but  a  pretended  prophesy  of  an  old  coat,  the  proper  deduc 
tion  is,  there  were  no  such  things,  and  that  the  book  of  Matthew 
is  fable  and  falsehood. 

I  pass  on  to  the  Book,  called  (he  Gospel  according  to  St,  Mark, 


IN    THE    NEW  TESTAMENT.  3K? 

The  Book  of  Mark. 

THERE  are  but  few  passages  in  Mark  called  prophesies,  and 
but  few  in  Luke  and  John.  Such  as  there  are  I  shall  examine, 
and  also  such  other  passages  as  interfere  with  those  cited  by  Mat 
thew. 

Mark  begins  his  book  by  a  passage  which  he  puts  in  the  shape 
of  a  prophesy.  Mark,  chap.  I.  v.  I. — "  The  beginning  of  the 
**  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  son  of  God. — As  it  is  written  in  the 
"  prophets,  Behold  1  send  my  messenger  before  thy  face,  which  shall 
u  prepare  the  Kay  before  thee."  Malachi,  chap.  3.  v.  1 .  The  pas 
sage  in  the  original  is  in  the  first  person.  Mark  makes  this 
passage  to  be  a  prophesy  of  John  the  Baptist,  said,  by  the 
Church,  to  be  the  fore-runner  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  if  we  at 
tend  to  the  verses  that  follow  this  expression,  as  it  stands  in  Ma 
lachi,  and  to  the  first  and  fifth  verses  of  the  next  chapter,  we  shall 
see  that  this  application  of  it  is  erroneous  and  false. 

Malachi  having  said  at  the  first  verse  "  Behold  I  will  send  my 
"  messenger  and  he  shall  prepare  the  way  before  me,"  says  at  the 
second  verse,  "  But  who  may  abide  the  day  of  fits  coming  ?  and  who 
"  shall  stand  when  he  appeareih  ?  for  he  is  like  a  refiner's  fire,  and 
*'  like  fuller's  s<?ap.v 

This  description  can  have  no  reference  to  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  consequently  none  to  John  the  Baptist.  It  is  a  scene 
of  fear  and  terror  that  is  here  described,  and  the  birth  of  Christ  is 
always  spoken  of  as  a  time  of  joy  and  glad  tidings. 

Malachi,  continuing  to  speak  on  the  same  subject ;  explains  in 
the  next  chapter  what  the  scene  is  of  which  he  speaks  in  the 
verses  above  quoted,  and  who  the  person  is  whom  he  calls  the 
messenger. 

Behold,  says  he,  chap.  4-.  v.  1. — "The  day  cometh  that  shall 
91  burn  like  an  oven,  and  all  the  proud,  yea,  and  all  that  do  wick- 


33  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

**  edly  shall  be  stubble;  and  the  day  cometh  that  shall  burn  them 
•ft  up  saith  the  Lord  of  Hosts,  that  it  shall  leave  them  neither  root 
u  nor  branch." 

Verse  5. — "  Behold  I  will  send  you  Elijah  the  prophet  before 
"  the  coming  of  the  great  and  dreadful  day  of  the  Lord." 

By  what  right,  or  by  what  imposition  or  ignorance,  Mark  has 
made  Elijah  into  John  the  baptist,  and  Malachi's  description  of  the 
day  of  judgement  into  the  birth  day  of  Christ,  1  leave  to  the  bishop 
to  settle. 

Mark,  in  the  second  and  third  verses  of  his  first  chapter,  con 
founds  two  passages  together  taken  from  different  booksx>f  the  Old 
Testament.  The  second  verse,  "  Btl<old  I  send  my  messenger 
'*  before  thy  face,  'which  shall  prepare  the  way  before  thee,"  is  taken, 
as  I  have  before  said,  from  Malachi.  The  third  verse  which  says 
"  The  voice  of  one  crying  in  tht  wilderness  prepare  ye  the  way  of  the 
"Lord,  make  his  paths  straight,"  is  not  in  Malachi,  but  in  Isaiah, 
chap.  40,  v.  3.  Whiston  says,  that  both  these  verses  were  origin 
ally  in  Isaiah.  If  so,  it  is  another  instance  of  the  disordered  state 
of  the  Bible,  and  corroborates  what  I  have  said  with  respect  to  the 
name  and  description  of  Cyrus  being  in  the  book  of  Isaiah,  to 
which  it  jcannot  chronologically  belong. 

The  words  in  Isaiah,  chap.  40.  v.  3. — "  The  voice  of  him  that 
<l  cryeth  in  the  wilderness,  prepare  ye  the  ivay  of  the  Lord,  make  his 
*'  path  straight,"  are  in  the  present  tense,  and,  consequently,  not 
predictive.  It  is  one  of  those  rhetorical  figures  which  the  Old  Tes 
tament  authors  frequently  used.  That  it  is  merely  rhetorical  and 
metaphorical  may  be  seen  at  the  6th  verse.  "  And  the  voice  said 
"cry,  and  he  said  what  shall  I  cry  ?  All  flesh  is  grass."  This  is 
ericlently  nothing  but  a  figure ;  for  flesh  is  not  grass  otherwise 
than  as  a  figure  or  metaphor,  where  one  thing  is  put  for  another. 
Besides  which,  the  whole  passage  is  too  general  and  declamatory 
to  be  applied,  exclusively,  to  any  particular  person  or  purpose. 

J  pass  on  to  the  eleventh  chapter. 


Ttf    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  9$ 

In  this  chapter  Mark  speaks  of  Christ  riding  into  Jerusalem 
upon  a  colt,  but  he  does  not  make  it  the  accomplishment  of  a  pro 
phesy  as  Matthew  has  done,  for  he  says  nothing  about  a  prophesy. 
Instead  of  which  he  goes  on  the  other  tack,  and  in  order  to  add 
new  honours  to  the  ass,  he  makes  it  to  be  a  miracle;  for  he  says, 
v.  2.  it  was  "  a  colt  whereon  never  man  sat"  signifying  thereby, 
that  as  the  ass  had  not  been  broken,  he  consequently  was  inspired 
into  good  manners,  for  we  do  not  hear  that  he  kicked  Jesus  Christ 
«ff.  There  is  not  a  word  about  his  kicking  in  all  the  four  Evangelists. 

I  pass  on  from  these  feats  of  horsemanship,  performed  upon  a 
jack-ass,  to  the  15th  chapter. 

At  the  2  Uh  v.  of  this  chapter,  Mark  speaks  of  parting  Christ's 
garments  and  casting  lots  upon  them,  but  he  applies  no  prophesy  to 
it,  as  Matthew  does.  He  rather  speaks  of  it  as  a  thing  then  in 
practice  with  executioners  as  it  is  at  this  day. 

At  the  28th  Terse  of  the  same  chapter,  Mark  speaks  of  Christ 
being  crucified  between  two  thieves,  that,  says  he,  "  the  scriptures 
**  might  be  fulfilled  which  saith,  and  he  was  numbered  with  the  trans- 
"  gressors"  The  same  thing  might  be  said  of  the  thieves. 

Thisexpiession  is  in  Isaiah,  chap.  53,  v.  12 — Grotius  applies 
it  to  Jeremiah.  But  the  case  has  happened  so  often  in  the  world 
where  innocent  men  have  been  numbered  with  transgressors,  and 
is  still  continually  happening,  that  it  is  absurdity  to  call  it  a  pro 
phesy  of  any  particular  person.  All  those  whom  the  church  calls 
martyrs  were  numbered  with  transgressors.  All  the  honest  pa 
triots  who  fell  upon  the  scaffold  in  France,  in  the  time  of  Robes 
pierre,  were  numbered  with  transgressors;  and  if  himself  had  not 
fallen,  the  same  case,  according  to  a  note  in  his  own  hand  writing, 
had  befallen  me,  yet  I  suppose  the  bishop  will  not  allow  that 
Isaiah  was  prophesying  of  Thomas  Paine. 

These  are  all  the  passages  in  mark  which  have  any  reference  I* 
prophesies. 


4$  AN   EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

Mark  concludes  his  book  by  making  Jesus  to  say  to  his  disciple's 
chap.  16,  v.  15.  "  Go  ye  into  all  the  World  and  preach  the  Gos- 
41  pel  to  every  creature — he  that  bclieveth  and  is  Baptised  shall  be 
"  saved,  but  he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned,  (fine  popish 
"  stuff  this)  and  these  signs  shall  follow  them  that  believe  ;  in  my 
"name  they  shall  cast  out  devils ;  they  shall  speak  with  new 
"tongues — they  shall  take  up  serpents,  and  if  they  drink  any 
••  deadly  thing  it  shall  not  hurt  them;  they  shall  lay  hands  on  the 
"  sick  and  they  shall  recover.'* 

Now,  the  bishop,  in  order  to  know  if  he  has  all  this  saving  and 
wonder-working  faith,  should  try  those  things  upon  himself.  He 
should  take  a  good  dose  of  arsenick,  and,  if  he  please,  I  will  send 
him  a  rattle-snake  from  America  ;  as  for  myself,  as  I  believe  in  God 
and  not  at  all  in  Jesus  Christ,  nor  in  the  books  called  the  scrip- 
fures,  the  experiment  does  not  concern  me. 

I  pass  on  to  the  book  of  Luke. 

There  are  no  passages  in  Luke  called  prophesies  excepting  those 
which  relate  to  the  passages  I  have  already  examined. 

Luke  speaks  of  Mary  being  espoused  to  Joseph,  but  he  makes 
no  references  to  the  passage  in  Isaiah,  as  Matthew  does.  He 
speaks  also  of  Jesus  riding  into  Jerusalem  upon  a  colt,  but  he  says 
nothing  about  a  prophecy.  He  speak"*  of  John  the  baptist,  and 
refers  to  the  passage  in  Isaiah  ot  which  I  have  already  spoken. 

At  the  13  chap.  v.  31,  he  says,  "  The  same  day  there  came  cer- 
**'  tain  cfthe  Pharisees,  saying  unto  him  (Jesus)  get  thee  out  and  depart 
41  hence tf or  Herod  zvill  kill  thce — and  he  said  unto  them,  go  ye,  and 
"  tell  that  Fox,  behold  I  cast  out  devil*  and  I  do  cures  to-day  andto- 
*'  morrow,  and  the  third  day  I  shall  be  perfected." 

Matthew  makes  Herod  to  die  whilst  Christ  was  a  child  in 
Egypt,  and  makes  Joseph  to  return  with  the  child  on  the  news  of 
Herod's  death  who  had  sought  to  kill  him;  Luke  makes  Herod  to 


IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  41 

be  living  and  to  seek  the  life  of  Jesas  after  Jesus  was  thirty  years 
of  age  ;  for  he  says,  chap.  3,  v.  23,  "  And  Je<us  began  to  be  a- 
'*  bout  thirty  years  of  age,  being,  as  was  supposed,  the  son  of  Jo- 
"  seph." 

The  obscurity  in  which  the  historical  part  of  the  New-Testa 
ment  is  involved  with  respect  to  Herod,  may  afford  to  priests  and 
commentators  a  plea,  which  to  some  may  appear  plausible,  but  to 
none  satisfactory,  that  the  Herod  of  which  Matthew  speaks,  and 
the  Herod  of  which  Luke  speaks,  were  different  persons.  Mat 
thew  calls  Herod  a  king  ;  and  Luke,  chap.  3,  v.  1,  calls  Herod 
Tetrach,  (that  is,  Governor)  of  Galilee.  But  there  could  be  no 
such  person  as  a  king  Herod,  because  the  Jews  and  their  country 
were  then  under  the  dominion  of  the  Roman  Emperors  who  go 
verned  then  by  Tetrachs,  or  Governors. 

Luke,  chap.  2,  makes  Jesus  to  be  born  when  Cyreneuswas  go 
vernor  of  Syria,  to  which  government  Judea  was  annexed ;  and  ac 
cording  to  this,  Jesus  was  not  born  in  the  time  of  Herod.     Luke 
says  nothing  about  Herod  seeking  the  life  of  Jesus  when  he  was 
born  ;  nor  of  his  destroying  the  children  under  two  years  old  ;  nor 
of  Joseph  fleeing  with  Jesus  into  Egypt ;  nor  of  his  returning  from 
thence.     On  the  contrary  the  book  of  Luke  speaks  as  if  the  person 
it  calls  Christ  had  never  been  out  of  Judea,  and  that  Herod  sought 
his  life  after  he  commenced  preaching  as  is  before  stated.     I  have 
already  shewn  thntLuke,in  the  book  called  the  Acts  of  theApostles, 
(which  commentators  ascribe  to  Luke)  contradicts  the  account  in 
Matthew,  with  respect  to  Judas  and  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver. 
Matthew  says  that  Judas  returned  the  money,  and  that  the  high 
priests  bought  with  it  afield  to  bury  strangers  in  ;  Luke  says,  that 
Judas  kept  the  money  and  bought  a  field  with  it  for  himself. 

As  it  is  impossible  the  wisdom  of  God  should  err,  so  it  is  impos- 
sibje  those  books  could  have  been  written  by  divine,  inspiration . 


42  AN   EXA.MINAON    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

Our  belief  in  God  and  his  unerring  wisdom  forbids  us  (o  believe  it* 
AS  for  myself,  I  feel  religiously  happy  in  the  total  disbelief  of  it. 

There  are  no  other  passages  called  prophecies  in  Luke  than 
those  I  have  spoken  of.     I  pass  on  to  the  book  of  John. 


The  Book  of  John. 

JOHN,  like  Mark  and  Luke,  is  not  much  of  a  prophecy- 
monger.  He  speaks  of  the  ass,  and  the  casting  lots  for  Jesus's 
clothes,  and  some  other  trifles,  of  which  I  have  already  spoken. 

John  makes  Jesus  to  say,  chap.  5,  v.  46,  €t  For  had  ye  believed 
"  Moses  ye  would  hate  believed  me,  for  he  wrote  of  me."  The  book 
of  the  Acts,  in  speaking  of  Jesus,  says,  chap.  3,  v.  22,  "  For  Mo- 
"  ses  truly  said]unto  the  fathers,  a  prophet  shall  the  Lord  your  God 
"  raise  up  unto  you,  of  your  brethren,  like  unto  me,  him  shall  ye 
<r  hear  in  all  things  whatsoever  he  shall  say  unto  you." 

This  passage  is  in  Deuteronomy,  chap.  1 8,  v.  15.  They  apply 
it  as  a  prophecy  of  Jesus.  What  imposition  !  The  person  spoken 
of  in  Deuteronomy,  and  also  in  numbers  where  the  same  person 
is  also  spoken  of,  h  Joshua,  the  minister  of  Moses,  and  his  imme 
diate  successor,  and  just  such  an  other  Robespierrean  character  as 
Moses  is  represented  to  have  been.  The  case,  as  related  in  those 
books,  is  as  follows: 

Moses  was  grown  old  and  near  to  his  end,  and  in  order  to  pre 
vent  confusion  after  his  death,  for  the  Israeliteshad  no  settled  sys 
tem  of  government ;  it  was  thought  best  to  nominate  a  successor 
to  Moses  wliiht  he  was  yet  living.  This  was  done,  as  we  are  told, 
in  the  following  manner  : 

Numbers,  chap.  27,  v.  12.  "  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses^ 
'•'  get  thee  up  into  this  mount  Abanm,  and  s^e  the  land  which  I 


IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  4 

':«  have  given  unto  the  children  of  Israel — and  when  thou  hast  seen 
94  it,  thou  also  shall  be  gathered  unto  thy  people  as  Aaron  thy  bro- 
"  ther  is  gathered,  v.  15,  And  Moses  spake  unto  the  Lord,  saying 
«  — Let  the  Lord,  the  God  of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh,  set  a  man 
"  over  the  congregation. — Which  may  go  outjbefore  them,  and 
"  which  may  go  in  before  them,  and  which  may  lead  them  out, 
"  and  which  may  bring  them  in,  that  the  congregation  of  the  Lord 
"  be  not  as  sheep  that  have  no  shepherd. — And  the  Lord  said  unto 
"  Moses,  take  thee  Joshua,  the  son  of  Nun,  a  man  in  whom  is  the 
•**  spirit,  and  lay  thine  hand  upon  him — and  sethinv  before  Eleazer 
"  the  priest,  and  before  all  the  congregation, End  give  him  a  charge 
*'  in  their  sight — and  thou  shall  put  some  of  thine  honor  upon  him, 
"  that  all  the  congregation  of  the  children  of  Israel  may  be  obedi- 
"  ent.— v.  22,  and  Moses  did  as  the  Lord  commanded,  and  he 
"  took  Joshua,  and  set  him  before  Eleazer  the  priest,  and  before 
''  all  the  congregation  ;  and  he  laid  hands  upon  him,  and  gave  him 
"  charge  as  the  Lord  commanded  by  the  hand  of  Moses." 

I  have  nothing  to  do,  in  this  place,  with  the  truth,  or  the  con 
juration,  here  practised,  of  raising  up  a  successor  to  Moses  like 
unto  himself.  The  passage  sufficiently  proves  it  is  Joshua,  and 
that  it  is  an  imposition  in  John,  to  make  the  case  into  a  prophesy 
of  Jesus.  But  the  prophesy-mongers  were  so  inspired  with  false 
hood  that  they  never  speak  truth.* 

*  Newton,  Bishop  of  Bristol  in  England,  published  a  work  in 
three  volumes  entitled  *'  Dissertations-  on  t/te  Prophesies.*'  The 
work  is  tediously  written  and  tiresome  to  read.  He  strains  hard 
to  make  every  passage  into  a  prophesy  that  suits  his  purpose.-— 
Among  others,  he  makes  this  expression  of  Moses,  "  the  Lord 
shall  raise  thee  up  a  prophet  like  unto  me,"  into  a  prophesy  of 
Christ,  who  was  not  born,  according  to  the  bible  chronologies  till 
fifteen  hundred  and  fifty-  two  years  after  the  time  of  Moses,  whereas 
it  was  an  immediate  successor  to  Moses  who  was  then  near  his 
end,  that  is  spoken  of  in  *he  passage  above  quoted. 

This  bishop,  the  better  to  impose  this  passage  on  the  world  as  a 
prophesy  of  Christ,  has  entirely  omitted  the  account  in  the  book 
of  Numbers  which  I  have  given  at  length  word  for  word,  and 


44  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THt 

I  pass  on  to  the  last  passage  in  these  fables  of  the  Evangelists, 
called  a  prophesy  of  Jesus  Christ. 

John  having  spoken  of  Jesus  expiring  on  the  cross  between  two 
thieves,  says,  chap.  19,  v.  32.  et  Then  came  the  soldiers  and  brake 
"  the  legs  of  the  first  (meaning  one  of  the  thieves)  and  of  the  other 
'•  which  was  crucified  with  him.  But  when  they  came  lo  Jesus 
*(  and  saw  that  he  was  dead  already,  they  brake  not  his  legs — v, 
"  36,  for  these  things  were  done  that  the  scripture  should  be  ful- 
"  filled.  A  bone  of  him  shall  not  be  broken." 


which  shews  beyond  the  possibility  of  a  doubt  that  the  person 
spoken  of  by  Moses  is  Joshua  and  no  other  person. 

Newton  is  but  a  superficial  writer.  He  takes  up  things  upon 
hear-say  and  inserts  them  without  either  examination  or  reflection, 
and  the  more  extraordinary  and  incredible  they  are,  the  better  he 
likes  them. 

In  speaking  of  the  walls  of  Babylon,  (volume  the  first,  page 
263)  he  makes  a  quotation  from  a  traveller  of  the  name  of  Taver- 
nur,  whom  he  calls  (by  way  of  giving  credit  to  what  he  says)  a 
celebrated  traveller,  that  those  walls  were  made  of  bornt  brick,  ten 
feet  square  and  three  feet  thick, — If  Newton  had  only  thought  of 
calculating  the  weight  of  such  a  brick,  he  would  have  seen  the 
impossibility  of  their  being  used  or  even  made.  A  brick  (en  feet 
square  and  three  feet  thick  contains  300  cubic  feet,  and  allowing  a 
cubic  foot  ofbirck  to  be  only  one  hundred  pounds,  each  of  the 
bishop's  bricks  would  weigh  30,000  pounds  ;  and  it  would  take 
about  thirty  cart  loads  of  clay  (one  horse  carts)  to  make  one 
bnck. 

But  his  account  of  the  stones  used  in  the  building  of  Solomon's 
temple  (volume  2d.  page  211)  far  exceeds  his  bricks  of  ten  foot 
square  in  the  walls  of  Babylon  ;  these  are  but  brick-bats  com 
pared  to  them. 

The  stones  (says  he)  employed  in  the  foundation,  were  in  magni 
tude  forty  cubits,  that  is,  above  sixty  feet,  a  cubit,  says  he,  being 
somewhat  more  than  one  foot  and  a  half,  (a  cubit  is  one  foot  nine 
inches)  and  the  superstructure  (says  this  bishop)  was  worthy  of 
such  foundations.  There  were  some  stones,  says  he,  of  the  wjiitest 
marble  forty-live  cubits  long,  five  cubits  high,  and  six  cubits  broad. 
These  are  the  dimensions  this  bishop  has  given,  which  in  measure 
of  twelve  inches  toafoot,  is  78  feeo9  inches  long,  ten  feet  6  inches 
broad  and  eight  feet  three  inches  thick,  and  contains  7,234  cubic 
feet.  I  now  go  to  demonstrate  the  imposition  of  this  bishop. 


IN    THE    KEW    TESTAMENT.  45 

The  passage  here  referred  to  is  in  Exodus,  and  lias  no  more  to 
do  with  Jesus  than  with  the  ass  he  rode  upon  to  Jerusalem  ;  nor 
yet  so  much,  if  a  roasted  jack-ass,  like  a  roasted  he-goat  might  be 
eaten  at  a  Jewish  passover.  It  might  be  some  consolation  to  an 
ass  to  know,  that  though  his  bones  might  be  picked,  they  would 
not  be  broken,  I  go  to  state  the  case. 

The  book  of  Exodus  in  instituting  the  Jewish  passover,  rn 
which  they  were  to  eat  an  he-lamb,  or  a  he-goat,  says  chap.  12,  v. 
5.  "Your  lamb  shall  be  without  blemish,  a  male  of  the  first  year  ; 
"  ye  shall  take  it  from  the  sheep  or  from  the  goats  " 

The  book,  after  stating  some  ceremonies  to  be  used  in  killing 
and  dressing  it  (for  it  was  to  be  roasted,  not  boiled)  says,  v.  43. 

A  cubic  foot  of  water  weighs  sixty-two  pounds  and  an  half. — 
The  specific  gravity  of  marble  to  water  is  as  2  1-2  is  to  one.  The 
weight  therefore  of  a  cubit  toot  of  marble  is  1.56  pounds,  which., 
multiplied  by  7,234-,  the  number  of  cubic  feet  in  one  of  those 
stones  makes  the  weight  of  it  to  be  1,128,504-  pounds,  which  is  5O.> 
tons'  Allowing  then  a  horse  to  draw  about  half  a  ton,  it  will 
require  a  thousand  horses  to  draw  one  such  stone  on  the  ground, 
how  then  were  they  to  be  lifted  into  a  building  by  human  hiincU* 
The  bishop  may  talk  of  taith  removing  mountains,  but  all  the 
faith  of  all  the  bishops  that  ever  lived  could  not  remove  one  of 
those  stones  and  their  bodily  strength  given  in. 

This  bishop  also  tells  of  great  guns  used  by  the  Turks  af  ine 
taking  of  Constantinople,  one  of  which,  he  says,  was  .drawn  by- 
seventy  yoke  of  oxen  and  by  two  thousand  men.  Volumes,  page 
117. 

The  weight  of  a  cannon  that  carries  a  ball  of  48  pounds,  which 
is  the  largest  cannon  that  are  cast,  weighs  8,000  pounds,  about 
three  tons  and  a  half,  and  may  be  drawn  by  three  yoke  ot  oxer*. 
Any  body  may  now  calculate  what  the  weight  of  the  bishop'-* 
great  gnu  must  be  that  required  seventy  yoke  of  oxen  to  draw  it. 
This  bishop  beats  Gulliver. 

When  men  give  i»p  the  use  of  the  divine  gift  of  reason  in  wrif- 
ing  on  any  subject,  be  it  religion  or  any  thing  else  ;  there  are  no 
bounds  to  their  extrav'uganc*kno  limit  to  their  absurdities. 

The  three  volumes  which  ihis  bishop  has  written  on  what  he 
calls  the  prophesies  contain  above  onethousand  two  hundred  pages, 
and  he  says  in  volume  3,  page  117,  "  I  hare  studied  brevity.'* — 
This  is  as  marvellous  as  the  bishop's  great  gun. 


46  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    FASSSAGE 

'"'  And  the  Lord  said  unto  Moses  and  Aaron,  This  is  the  ordt- 

*  nance  of  the  passover.     There  shall  no  stranger  eat  thereof. 
**But  every  man's  servant  that  is  bought  for  money,  when  thou 
"hast  circumcised  him,  then  shall  he  eat  thereof.     A   foreigner 
"  shall  not  eat  thereof. — In  one  house  shall  it  be  eaten  ;  thou  shalt 
"  not  carry  forth  ought  of  the  flesh  thereof  abroad  out  of  the 
house  ;  Neither  shall  thou  break  a  bone  thereof." 

We  here  see  that  the  case  as  it  stands  in  Exodus,  is  a  ceremony 
and  not  a  prophesy ;  and  totally  unconnected  with  Jesus's  bones 
or  any  part  of  him. 

John  having  thus  filled  up  the  measure  of  apostolic  fable,  con 
cludes  his  book^with  something  that  beats  all  fable  ;  for  he  says  at 
the  last  verse,  "and  there  are  also  many  other  things  which  Jesus 
**  did,  the  which  if  they  should  be  written  every  one,  /  suppose 

*  *  that  even  the  world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books  that  should 
be  written  I" 

This  is  what  in  vulgar  life  is  called  a  Thumper •,  that  is,  not  only 
£  lie,  but  a  lie  beyond  the  line  of  possibility  ;  besides  which,  it 
is  an  absurdity,  for  if  they  should  be  written  in  the  world,  the 
trorld  could  contain  them. — Here  ends  the  examination  of  the 
passages  called  prophesies. 

I  have  now,  reader,  gone  through,  and  examined,  all  the  pas 
sages  which  the  four  books  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John 
Cfaote  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  call  them  prophecies  of  Jesus 
Christ.  When  I  first  set  down  to  this  examination,  I  expected  to 
find  cause  for  some  censure,  but  little  did  I  expect  to  find  them  so 
utterly  destitute  or"  trulh,  and  of  all  pretensions  to  it,  as  I  have. 
shewn  them  to  be. 


The  practice  which  the  vvrite&$f  those  books  employ  is  not 
moie false  than  it  is  absurd.  They  state  some  trifling  case  of  the 
person  they  call  Jesus  Christ,  and  then  cut  oui  a  sentence  from 


IN    THE    NEW  TESTAMENT.  47 

.<6me  passage  of  the  Old  Testament  and  call  it  a  prophecy  of  that 
case.  But  when  the  words  thus  cut  out  are  restored  to  the  place 
they  are  taken  from,  and  read  with  the  words  before  and  after  them, 
they  give  the  lie  to  the  New  Testament.  A  short  instance  or 
two  of  this  will  suffice  for  the  whole. 

They  make  Joseph  to  dream  of  an  angel  who  informs  him  that 
Herod  is  dead,  and  tells  him  to  come  with  the  child  out  of  Egypt 
They  then  cut  out  a  sentence  from  the  book  of  Hosea,  Out  of 
Egypt  have  I  called  my  Son,  and  apply  it  as  a  prophesy  in  (hat 
case. 

The  word?,  "  And  called  my  Son  out  of  Egypt,"  are  in  the  bible. 
But  what  of  that  ?  They  are  oniy  part  of  a  passage  and  not  a 
whole  passage,  and  stand  immediately  connected  with  other  words 
which  shew  they  refer  to  the  children  of  Israel  coming  out  of 
Egypt  iivthe  time  of  Fharoah,  and  to  the  idolatry  they  committed 
alter  wards. 

Again,  they  tell  us  that  when  the  soldiers  came  to  break  the  legs 
•f  the  crucified  persons,  they  found  Jesus  was  already  dead,  and 
therefore  did  not  break  his.  They  then,  with  some  alteration  ol 
the  original,  cut  out  a  sentence  from  Exodus,  a  bone  of  him,  sha& 
not  be  broken,  and  apply  it  as  a  prophesy  of  that  case. 

The  words,  "  Neither  shall  ye  break  a  bone  thereof"  (for  they 
have  altered  the  text)  are  in  the  bible.  But  what  of  that  ?  They 
are,  as  in  the  former  case,  only  part  of  a  passage,  and  not  a  whole 
passage,  and  when  read  with  the  words  they  are  immediately 
joined  to,  shew  it  is  the  bones  of  a  he-lamb,  or  a.  he-goat  of  which 
the  passage  speaks. 

These  repeated  forgeries  and  falsifications  create  a  well-founded 
suspicion,  that  all  the  cases  spoken  of  concerning  the  person 
called  Jesus  Christ  are  made  cases,  on  purpose  to  lug  in,  and  that 
very  clumsily,  some  broken  sentences  from  the  old  testament,  and 


4S  AN     EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

apply  them  as  prophesies  of  those  cases ;  and  that  so  far  from  his 
being  the  Son  of  God,  he  did  not  exist  even  as  a  man — that  he  is 
merely  an  imaginary  or  allegorical  character,  as  Apollo,  Hercules, 
fupiter,  and  all  the  Deities  of  Antiquity  were.  There  is  no  his- 
story  written  at  the  time  Jesus  Christ  is  said  to  have  lived,  that 
speaks  of  the  existence  of  such  a  person  even  as  a  man. 

Did  we  find  in  any  other  book,  pretending  to  give  a  system  of 
religion,  the  falshoods,  falsifications,  contradictions  and  absurdi 
ties,  which  are  to  be  met  with  in  almost  every  page  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testament,  all  the  priests  of  the  present  day,  who  supposed 
themselves  capable,  would  triumphantly  shew  their  skill  in  criti 
cism,  and  cry  it  down  as  a  most  glaring  imposition.  But  since  the 
books  in  question  belong  to  their  own  trade  and  profession,  they, 
or  at  least  many  of  them,  seek  to  stifle  every  enquiry  into  them, 
and  abuse  those  who  have  the  honesty  and  the  courage  to  do  it. 

When  a  book,  as  is  the  case  with  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
is  ushered  into  the  world  under  the  title  of  being  the  WORD  OF 
Go  D,  it  ought  to  be  examined  with  the  utmost  strictness,  in  order 
to  know  if  it  has  a  well  founded  claim  to  that  title,  or  not,  and 
whether  we  are,  or  are  not,  imposed  upon  ;  for  as  no  poison  is  se 
dangerous  as  that  which  poisons  the  physic,  so  no  falsnood  is  s& 
fatal  as  that  which  is  made  an  article  of  faith. 

Tin's  examination  becomes  the  more  necessary,  because  when 
the  New  Testament  was  written,  I  might  say  invented,  the  art 
of  printing  was  not  known,  and  there  were  no  other  copies  of 
the  Old  Testament  than  written  copies.  A  written  copy  of  that 
book  would  cost  about  as  much  as  six  hundred  common  printed 
bibles  now  cost.  Consequently  the  book  was  in  the  hands  but  of 
very  few  parsons,  and  these  chiefly  of  the  church.  This  gave  an 
opportunity  to  the  writers  of  the  New  Testament  to  make  quota^ 
(ions  from  the  Old  Testament  as  they  pleased,  and  call  them  pro 
phesies  with  very  little  danger  of  being  detected.  Besides  which, 
<he  terrors  and  inquisitorial  fury  of  the  church,  like  what  they  tell 


IN    THE    NKW    TESTAMENT.  49 

w  of  the  flaming  sword  that  turned  everyway,  stood  century  over 
the  New-Testament ;  and  time,  which  brings  every  thing  else  to 
light,  has  served  to  thicken  the  darkness  that  guards  it  from  detec 
tion. 

Were  the  New-Testament  now  to  appear  for  the  first  time, 
every  priest  of  the  present  day,  would  examine  it  line  by  line,  and 
compare  the  detached  sentences  it  calls  prophecies,  with  the 
whole  passages  in  the  Old  Testament,  from  whence  they  are  ta- 
taken.  Why  then  do  they  not  make  the  same  examination,  at 
this  time  as  they  would  make,  had  the  New-Testament  never  ap 
peared  before  ?  If  it  be  proper  and  right  to  make  it  in  one  case,  it 
is  equally  proper  and  right  to  do  it  in  the  other  case.  Length  of 
time  can  make  no  difference  in  the  right  to  do  it  at  any  time.  But 
instead  of  doing  this,  they  go  on  as  their  predecessors  went  on  be* 
fore  them,  to  tell  the  people  there  are  prophecies  of  Jesus  Christ, 
when  the  truth  is,  there  are  none. 

They  tell  us  that  Jesus  rose  from  the  dead,  and  ascended  into, 
heaven.  It  is  very  easy  to  say  so,  a  great  lie  is  as  easily  told  as  a 
little  one.  But  if  he  had  done  so,  those  would  have  been  the  only 
circumstances  respecting  him,  that  would  have  differed  from  the 
€ommon  lot  of  man :  and  consequently,  the  only  case  that  would 
apply  exclusively  to  him,  as  prophecy,  would  be  some  passage  irj, 
the  Old-Testament  that  foretold  such  things  of  him.  But  there  is 
»ot  a  passage  in  the  Old-Testament  that  speaks  of  a  person  who 
after  being  Crucified,  dead,  and  buried,  should  rise  from  the  dead 
and  ascend  into  heaven.  Our  prophecy-mongers  supply  the  si 
lence,  the  Old-Testament  guards  upon  such  things,  by  telling  us  o£ 
passages  they  call  prophecies,  and  that  falsely  so,  about  Joseph's 
dreams,  old  cloaths,  broken  bones,  and  suchlike  trifling  stuff. 

In  writing  upon  this,  as  upon  every  other  subject,  I  speak  a  lan 
guage  full  and  intelligible.  I  deal  not  in  hints  and  intimations. — 
I  have  several  reasons  for  this :  First,  tha;  I  may  be  cloarly 


^0  AN  EXAMINAON    Ot    THE 

stood.  Secondly,  that  it  may  be  seen  I  am  in  earnet,  and  thirdly^ 
because  it  is  an  affront  to  truth  to  treat  falsehood  with  complai 
sance.  ^~^ 

I  will  close  this  treatise   with  a  subject  I  have  already  touched 
upon,  in  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason. 

The  world  has  been  amused  with  the  term,  revealed  religion, 
and  the  generality  of  priests  apply  this  term  to  the  books  called 
the  Old  and  New  Testament.  The  Mahometans  apply  the  same 
term  to  the  Koran.  There  is  no  man  that  believes  in  revealed 
religion  stronger  than  I  do  ;  but  it  is  not  the  reveries  of  the  Old 
and  New  Testament,  nor  of  the  Koran,  that  I  dignify  with  that 
sacred  title.  That  which  is  revelation  to  me  exists  in  something 
•which  no  human  mind  can  invent ;  no  human  hand  can  counter 
feit  or  alter. 
g 

The  word  of  God  is  the  Creation  we  behold  ;  and  this  word  of 

God  revealeth  to  man  all  that  is  necessary  for  man  to  know  of  his 
tfeator. 

Do  we  want  to  con  template  his  power?  we  see  it  in  the  im 
mensity  of  his  creation. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  wisdom  ?  we  see  it  in  the 
unchangeable  order  by  which  the  incomprehensible  whole  is4 
governed. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  munificence  ?  We  see  it  in  the 
abundance  with  which  he  fills  the  earth. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  mercy  ?  we  see  it  in  his  not 
withholding  that  abundance,  even  from  the  unthankful. 

Do  we  want  to  contemplate  his  will  so  far  as  it  respects  man  ? 
The  goodness  he  shews  to  all,  is  a  lesson  for  our  conduct  to  each 
other. 


IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  5U 

fci  fine,  do  we  want  to  .know  what  God  is  ?  Search,  not  the 
Ibook  called  the  scripture,  which  any  human  hand  might  make,  or 
any  impostor  invent ;  but  the  SCRIPTURE  CALLED  the  CR.E- 
ATION. 

When,  in  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  I  called  the  cre 
ation  the  true  revelation  of  God  to  man,  I  did  not  know  that  any 
other  person  had  expressed  the  same  idea.  But  I  lately  met  with 
the  writings  of  Doctor  Conyers  Middleton,  published  the  begin 
ning  of  last  century,  in  which  he  expresses  himself  in  the  same 
manner,  with  respect  to  the  creation,  as  I  have  done  in  the  Age 
,©f  Reason.  , 

He  was  principal  librarian  of  the  university  of  Cambridge,  in 
England,  which  furnished  him  with  extensive  opportunities  of 
reading,  and  necessarily  required  he  should  be  well  acquainted 
with  the  dead  as  wtll  as  the  living  languages.  He  was  a  man  of 
a  strong  original  mind  ;  had  the  courage  to  think  for  himself,  and 
the  honesty  to  speak  his  thoughts, 

He  made  a  journey  to  Rome,  from  whence  he  wrote  letters  1o 
shew  that  the  forms  and  ceremonies  of  the  Romish  Christian 
-Church,  were  taken  from  the  degenerate  state  of  the  heathen 
mythology,  as  it  stood  in  the  latter  times  of  the  Greeks  and  Ro 
mans.  He  attacked,  without  ceremony,  the  miracles  which  the 
church  prentended  to  perform  ;  and  in  one  of  his  treatises  he  calls 
the  creation  a  revelation.  The  priests  of  England,  of  that  day, 
in  order  to  defend  their  citadel,  by  first  defending  its  outworks, 
attacked  him  for  attacking  the  Romish  ceremonies  ;  and  one  of 

them  censures  him  for  calling  the  creation  a  revelation.     He  thus 
replies  to  him : 

"  One  of  them,  says  he,  appears  to  be  scandalized  by  the  title 
"  of  revelation,  which  I  have  given  to  that  discovery  which  God 
•<*  made  of  himself,  in  the  visible  works  of  his  creation.  Yet  it  w 
'?  no  other  than  what  the  wise,  in  all  ages,  have  given  to  it;  who 


52  AT9    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSSAGfe  x 

"  consider  it  as  the  most  authentic  and  indisputable  revelation 
mt  which  God  has  ever  given  of  himself,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
"  world  to  this  day.  It  was  this  by  which  the  first  notice  of  him 
**  was  revealed  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  and  by  which  alone 
"  it  has  been  kept  up  ever  since,  among  the  several  nations  of  it. 
"  From  this  the  reason  of  man  was  enabled  to  trace  out  his  nature 
"  and  attributes,  and  by  a  gradual  deduction  of  consequences,  to 
fi  learn  his  own  nature  also,  with  all  the  duties  belonging  to  it, 
"  which  relate  either  to  God,  or  to  his  fellow  creatures.  This 
"constitution  of  things  was  ordained  by  God,  as  an  universal 
"  law  or  rule  of  conduct  to  man ;  the  source  of  all  his  knowledge ; 
"  the  test  of  all  truth,  by  which  all  subsequent  revelations,  which 
"  are  supposed  to  have  been  given  by  God  in  any  other  manner, 
"  must  be  tried  and  cannot  be  received  as  divine,  any  further  than 
'•'  as  they  are  found  to  tally  and  coincide  with  this  original  standard. 

"  It  was  this  divine  law,  which  I  referred  to  in  the  passage 
"  abotfe  recited,  (meaning  the  passage  on  which  they  had  attacked 
"  him)  being  desirous  to  excite  the  readers  attention  to  it,  as  it 
"  would  enable  him  to  judge  more  freely  of  the  argument  I  was 
"  handling.  For  by  contemplating  this  law,  he  would  discover 
"  the  genuine  way,  which  God  himself  has  marked  out  to  us,  for 
"  the  acquisition  of  true  knowledge  ;  not  from  the  authority  or 
"  reports  of  our  fellow  creatures,  but  from  the  information  of  the 
"  facts,  and  material  objects,  which  in  his  providential  distribu- 
«'  tion  of  worldly  things,  he  hath  presented  to  the  perpetual  ob- 
*'  servation  of  our  senses.  Fdr  as  it  was  from  these  that  his  exist- 
f<  ance  and  nature,  the  most  important  articles  of  all  knowledge, 
"  were  first  discovered  to  man,  so  that  grand  discovery  furnished 
"  new  light  towards  tracing  out  the  rest,  and  made  all  the  infer 
<f  rior  subjects  of  human  knowledge,  more  easily  discoverable  t» 
«f  us  by  the  same  method. 

"  I  had  another  view  likewise  in  the  same  passages,  and  appli* 
*  cable  to  the  same  end,  of  giving  the  reader  a  more  enlarged 


KJ    THE    NEW    TKSTAMEN^.  -^ 

*'  notion  of  the  question  in  dispute,  who,  by  turning  his  thoughts 
'"'to  reflect  on  the  works  of  the  Creator,  as  they  are  manifested 
"to  us  in  this  fabric  of  the  world,  could  not  fail  to  observe,  that 
**  they  are  all  of  them  great,  noble,  and  suitable  to  the  majesty  of 
"  his  nature  ;  carrying  with  them  the  proofs  of  their  origin,  and 
"  shewing  themselves  to  be  the  productions  of  an  all-wise  and 
"  allmighty  Being  :  and  by  accustoming  his  mind  to  these  sublime 
*'  reflections,  he  will  be  prepared  to  determine  whether  those 
"  miraculous  interpositions  50  confidently  affirmed  to  us  by  the 
"  primitive  fathers,  can  reasonably  be  thought  to  make  a  part  in 
'*  the  grand  scheme  of  the  Divine  administration,  or  whether  it 
"  be  agreeable,  that  God,  who  created  all  things  by  his  will, 
"  and  can  give  what  turn  to  them  he  pleases  by  the  same  will, 
*'  should,  for  the  particular  purposes  of  his  government  and  the 
'•  services  of  the  church,  descend  to  the  low  expedient  of  visions 
"  and  revelations,  granted  sometimes  to  boys  for  the  instruction  of 
'*  the  elders,  and  sometimes  to  women  to  settle  the  fashion  and 
"  length  of  their  veils,  and  sometimes  to  Pastors  of  the  Church, 
"  to  enjoin  them  to  ordain  one  man  a  lecturer,  another  a  priest ; 
"  or  that  he  should  scatter  a  profusion  of  miracles  around  the 
"  stake  of  a  martyr,  yet  all  of  them  vain  and  insignificant,  and 
"without  any  sensible  effect  either  of  preserving  the  life,  or 
*'  easing  the  sufferings  of  the  saint,  or  even  of  mortifying  his 
*'  persecutors,  who  were  always  left  to  enjoy  the  full  triumph 
•*  of  their  cruelty,  and  the  poor  martyr  to  expire  in  a 

*  miserable  death.     When  these   things,  I  say,  are  brought  to 
tf  the  original  test,  and  compared  with  the  genuine  and  indisput 
able  works  of  the  Creator;  how  minute,  hovv  trifling,  how 

*  contemptible  must  they  be  ?  And  how  incredible  must  it  be 

*  thought,  that,  for  the   instruction  of  his  Church,  God  should 
"employ    ministers    so    precarious,    unsatisfactory    and     inade- 
*'  quate,  as  the  extacies  of  women  and  boys,  and  the  visions  of 
"  interested  priests ;  which  were  derided  at  the  very  time  by 
ff  men  of  sense,  to  whom  they  were  proposed. 


54  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGE'S 

"  That  this  universal  law,  (continues  Middleton.  meaning, 
**  the  Jaw  revealed  in  the  works  of  the  creation)  was  actually 
"  revealed  to  the  heathen  world,  long  before  the  gospel  was 
•*'  known,  we  learn  from  all  the  principle  sages  of  antiquity  who 
"made  it  the  capital  subject  of  their  studies  and  writings. 

"  Cicero,  (says  Middleton)  has  given  us  a  short  abstract  of  it, 
"in  a  fragment  still  remaining,  from  one  of  his  books  on  govern- 
"ment,  which,  (says  Middleton)  I  shall  here  transcribe  in  his 
"  own  words,  as  they  will  illustrate  my  sense  also,  in  the  passage? 
"  that  appear  so  dark  and  dangerous  .to  my  antagonists. 

"The  true  law  (it  is -Cicero  who  speaks)  is  right  reason,  con 
formable  to  the  nature  of  things,  constant,  eternal,  diffused 
through  all,  which  calls  us  to  duty  by  commanding;  deters  as 
from  sip  by  forbid  ing;  which  never  loses  its  influence  with  the 
good ;  nor  ever  preserves  it  with  the  wicked.  This  law  cannot 
be  over-ruled  bv  any  other,  nor  abrogated  in  whole,  or  in  part  : 
nor  can  we  be  absolved  from  it,  either  by  the  senate  or  by  the 
people;  nor  are  we  to  seek  any  other  comment,  or  interpreter  of 
it  hut  itself:  nor  can  there  be  one  law  at  Rome,  and  another  at 
Athens;  one  now  and  another  hereafter;  but  the  same  eternal 
immutable  law  comprehends  all  nations,,  at  all  times,  under  oae 
common  master  and  governor  of  all'— GOD.  He  is  the  ijiventoj, 
propounder,  enactor  of  this  law  ;  and  whoever  will  not  obey  it, 
must  first  renounce  himself,  and  throw  off  the  nature  of  man  ;  fay 
doing  which,  he  will  suffer  the  greatest  punishments  though  he 
should  escape  all  the  other  torments  which  are  commonly  believed 
.to  be  prepared  for  the  wicked."  Here  ends  the  quotation  from 
Cicero. 

"Our  Doctors,  (continues  Middleton)  perhaps  will  look  on  all 
«*  this  as  RANK  DEISM  ;  but  let  them  call  it  what  they  will,  I 
«*  shall  ever  avow  and  defend  it  as  the  fundamental,  essential, 
•**'  and  vital  part  of  all  true  religion/*  Here  ends  the  quotation 
from  Middle  torn 


T»   THE    NEW  TESTAMENT. 


I  have  here  given  the  reader  two  sublime  extracts  from  men 
toho  lived  in  ages  of  time,  far  remote  from  each  other,  but  wher 
thought  alike.  Cicero  lived  before  the  time  in  which  they  tell  us 
Christ  was  born.  Middleton  may  be  called  a  man  of  our  own  time 
as  he  lived  within  the  same  century  with  ourselves. 

In  Cicero  we  see  that  vast  superiority,  of  mind,  that  sublimity  of 
right  reasoning,  and  justness  of  ideas,  which  man  acquires,  not  by 
studying  bibles  and  testaments,  and  the  theology  of  schools  built 
thereon,but  by  studying  the  creator  in  the  immensity  and  unchange 
able  order  of  his  creation,  and  the  immutability  of  his  law* 
"  There  cannot"  says  Cicero  "  be  one  law  now,  and  another  here- 
<(  after  ;  but  the  same  eternal  immutable  law  comprehends  all  nations* 
"  at  all  times,  under  one  common  master  and  governor  of  all,  GOD." 
But  according  to  the  doctrine  of  schools  which  priests  have  set  up^ 
we  see  one  law  called  the  Old  Testament,  given  in  one  age  of  the 
world,  and  another  law  called  the  New  Testament,  given  in  ano 
ther  age  of  the  world.  As  all  this  is  contradictory  to  the  eternal 
immutable  nature,  and  the  unerring  and  unchangeable  wisdom  of 
God,  we  must  be  compelled  to  hold  this  doctrine  to  be  false,, 
and  the  old  and  the  new  law,  called  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa 
ment,  to  be  impositions,  fables,  and  forgeries,. 

In  Middleton,  we  see  the  manly  eloquence  of  an  enlarged  mind? 
.and  the  genuine  sentiments  of  a  true  believer  in  his  Creator.  In 
stead  of  reposing  his  faith  on  books,  by  whatever  name  they  may 
be  called,  whether  Old  Testaments  or  New,  he  fixes  the  creation 
as  the  great  original  standard  by  which  every  other  thing  called 
the  word,  or  work  of  God,  is  to  be  tried.  In  this  we  have  an  in 
disputable  scale  whereby  to  measure  every  word  or  work  imputed 
to  him.  If  the  thing  so  imputed  carries  not  in  itself  the  evidence 
of  the  same  Almightiness  of  power,  of  the  same  unerring  truth  and 
wisdom,  and  the  same  unchangeable  order  in  all  its  parts,  as  are 
visibly  demonstrated  to  our  senses,  and  comprehensible  by  our  rea- 
sfcn,  in  the  magnificent  fabric  of&e  universe,  fliat  word  or 


3&  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

work  is  not  of  God.  Let  then  the  two  books  called  the  old  and 
new  Testament  be  tried  by  this  rule,  and  the  result  will  be,  that 
the  authors  of  them,  whoever  they  were,  Will  be  convicted  of  for 
gery. 

The  invariable  principles,  and  unchangeable  order,  which  re 
gulate  the  movements  of  all  the  parts  that  compose  the  universe, 
demonstrate  both  to  our  senses  and  our  reason  that  its  creator  is  a 
God  of  unerring  truth.  But  the  Old  Testament,  beside  the  num. 
berless  absurd  and  bagatelle  stories  it  tells  of  God,  represents  him 
as  a  God  of  deceit,  a  God  not  to  be  confided  in.  Ezekiel  makes 
God  to  say,  chap.  1 4-,  v.  9,  "  and  if  the  prophet  be  deceived  when 
"  he  hath  spoken  a  thing,  /,  the  Lord  have  deceived  that  prophet." 
And  at  the  20th  chap.  v.  25,  he  makes  God,  in  speaking  of  the 
Children  of  Israel  to  say,  "  Wherefore  I  gave  them  statutes  that 
"  were  not  good,  and  judgements  by  which  they  could  not  live" 
This,  so  far  from  being  the  word  of  God,  is  horrid  blasphemy  a- 
gainsthim.  Reader,  put  thy  confidence  in  thy  God,  and  put  no 
trust  in  the  bible. 

The  same  old  Testament  after  telling  us  that  God  created  the 
heavens  and  the  earth  in  six  days,  makes  the  same  almighty  pow 
er  and  eternal  wisdom  employ  itself  in  giving  directions  how  a 
priest's  garments  should  be  cut,  and  what  sort  of  stuff  they  should 
be  made  ofj  and  what  their  offerings  should  be,  Gold  and  Silver 
and  Brass,  and  blue,  and  purple,  and  scarlet,  and  fine  linnen,  and 
goats  hair  and  rams  skins  died  red,  and  badger  skins,  Sec.  &c. 
chap.  25,  v.  3.  and  in  one  of  the  pretended  prophecies  I  have 
just  examined  God  is  made  to  give  directions  how  they  should  kill, 
cook,  and  eat  a  he-lamb  or  a  he-goat.  And  Ezekiel,  Chap.  4,  t* 
#11  up  the  measure  of  abominable  absurdity,  makes  God  to  order 
him  to  take  "  wheat,  and  barley,  and  beans,  and  lentiks,  and  millet, 
"  and Jltches  and  make  a  loaj  or  a  cake  thereof,  and  bake  it  with  hit- 
"man  dung  and  eat  it j"  but  as  E^kiel  complained  that  this  mess 


.IN    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  £7 

was  too  strong  for  his  stomach,  the  matter  was  compromised  frorri 
man's  dung  to  cow-dung,  Ezekiel,  chap.  4.  Compare  all  this 
ribaldry,  blasphemously  called  the  word  of  God,  with  the  Almigh 
ty  power  that  created  the  universe,  and  whose  eternal  wisdom 
directs  and  governs  all  its  mighty  movements,  and  we  shall  be  atjj 
Joss  to  find  a  name  sufficiently  contemptible  for  it. 

In  the  promises  which  the  Old  Testament  pretends  that  God 
made  to  his  people,  the  same  derogatory  ideas  of  him  prevail.  It 
makes  God  to  promise  to  Abraham,  that  his  seed  should  be  like  the 
stars  in  heaven,  and  the  sand  on  the  sea  shore,  for  multitude,  and 
that  he  would  give  them  the  land  of  Canaan  as  their  inheritance 
forever.  But  observe,  reader,  how  the  performance  of  this  pro 
mise  was  to  begin,  and  then  ask  thine  own  reason,  if  the  wisdom  of 
God,  whose  power  is  equal  to  his  will,  could,  consistently  with 
that  power  and  that  wisdom,  make  such  a  premise. 

The  performance  of  the  promise  was  to  begin,  according  to  that 
book,  by  four  hundred  years  of  bondage  and  affliction.  Genesis, 
cap.  15  v.  13,  "  And  God  said  unto  Abraham,  know  of  a  surety 
"  that  thy  seed  sluill  be  a  stranger  in  a  land  that  is  not  theirs, and  shall 
*l  serre  them  and  they  shall  afflict  themfour  hundred  years  "  This  pro 
mise  then  to  Abraham,  and  his  seed  forever,  to  inherit  the  land  of 
Canaan,had  it  been  a  fact  instead  of  a  fable,  was  to  operate,  in  the 
commencement  of  it,  as  a  curse  upon  all  the  people  and  their  chil 
dren,  and  their  children's  childeren  for  four  hundred  years. 

But  the  case  is,  the  book  of  Genesis  was  written  after  the 
bondage  in  Eg)pt  had  taken  place  ;  and  in  order  to  get  rid  of 
the  disgrace  of  the  Lord's  chosen  people,  as  they  called  themselves, 
being  in  bondage  to  the  Gentiles,  they  make  God  to  be  the  author 
of  it,  and  annex  it  as  a  condition  to  a  pretended  promise;  as  it 
God,  in  making  that  promise,  had  exceeded  his  power  in  per 
forming  it,  and  consequently  his  wisdom  in  making  it.  and  wds 


58  AN  EXAMINAON    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

obliged  to  compromise  with  them  for  one  half,  and  with  the  Egyp«i 
tians,  to  whom  they  were  to  be  in  bondage,  for  the  other  half. 

Without  degrading  my  cwn  reason  by  bringing  those  wretched 
and  contemptible  tales  into  a  comparative  view,  with  the  Al 
mighty  power  and  eternal  wisdom,  which  the  Creator  hath  de 
monstrated  to  our  senses  in  thex  creation  of  the  universe,  I  will 
confine  myself  to  say,  that  if  we  ccnpare  them  with  the  divine 
and  forcible  sentiments  of  dcero,  the  result  will  be,  that  the  hu 
man  mind  has  degenerated  by  believing  them.  Man,  in  a  state 
of  groveling  superstition,  from  which  he  has  not  courage  to  rise, 
loses  the  energy  of  his  mental  powers. 

I  will  not  tire  the  reader  with  more  observations  on  the  Old 
Testament. 

As  to  the  New  Testament,  if  it  be  brought  and  tried  by  that 
standard  which,  as  Middleton  wisely  says,  God  has  revealed  to 
our  senses,of  his  Almighty  power  and  wisdom,  in  the  creation  and 
government  of  the  visible  universe,  it  will  be  found  equally  as 
false,  paltry,  and  absurd,  as  the  Old. 

Without  entering,  in  this  place,  into  any  other  argument,  that 
the  story  of  Christ  is  of  human  invention  and  not  of  divine  origin, 
I  will  confine  myself  to  shew  that  it  is  derogatory  to  God,  by  the 
contrivance  of  it  ;  because  the  means  it  supposes  God  to  use,  are 
not  adequate  to  the  end  to  be  obtained  j  and.  therefore,  are  dero 
gatory  to  the  Almightiness  of  his  power,  and  the  eternity  of  his 
wisdom. 

The  New  Testament  supposes  that  God  sent  his  son  upon 
earth  to  make  anew  covenant  with  man,  which  the  Church  calls 
the  covenant  of  grace,  and  to  instruct  mankind  in  a  new  doctrine, 
which  it  calls  Faith,  meaning  there  by,  not  faith  in  God,  for  Cicero 
and  all  true  Deists,  always  ha'',  and  always  will  have,  this;  but 
faith  in  the  nerson  called  f^sus  Christ,  and  that  wbr»* 


IN    THE    NEW  •ic,.»«A.-.*a^-» 

this  faith  should,  to  use  the  words  of  the  New  Testament,  be 
DAMNED. 

Now  if  this  were  a  fact,  it  is  consistent  with  that  attribute  of 
God,  called  his  goodness,  that  no  time  should  be  lost  in  letting 
£oor  unfortunate  man  know  it ;  and  as  that  goodness  was  united 
to  Almighty  power,  and  that  power  to  Almighty  wisdom,  all  the 
means  existed  in  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  to  make  it  known  im 
mediately  over  the  whole  earth,  in  a  manner  suitable  to  the  Alrnigh- 
tinessof  his  divine  nature,  and  with  evidence  that  would  not 
leave  man  in  doubt;  for  it  is  always  incumbent  upon  us,  in  all 
cases,  to  believe  that  the  Almighty  always  acts,  not  by  imperfect 
means  as  imperfect  man  acts,  but  consistently  with  his  Almighty- 
ness.  It  is  this  only  that  can  become  the  infallible  criterion  by 
which  we  can  possibly  distinguish  the  works  of  God  from  the 
works  of  man. 

Observe  now  Reader,  how  the  comparison  between  this  sup 
posed  mission  of  Christ,  on  the  belief,  or  disbelief,  of  which  they 
say,  man  was  to  be  saved  or  Damned — observe,  I  say,  how  thecomj 
parison  between  this  and  the  Almighty  power  and  wisdom  of  God 
.  demonstrated  to  our  senses  in  the  visible  creation,  goes  on. 

The  Old  Testament  tells  us  that  God  created  the  heavens  and 
the  earth,  and  every  thing  therein,  in  six  days.  The  term  six  days, 
is  ridiculous  enough  when  applied  to  God;  but  leaving  out  that 
absurdity,  it  contains  the  idea  of  Almighty  power,  acting  unitedly 
with  Almighty  wisdom,  to  produce  an  immense  work,  that  ©f  the 
creation  of  the  universe,  and  every  thing  therein,  in  a  short 
time. 

Now  as  the  eternal  salvation  of  man,  is  of  much  greater  impor 
tance  than  his  creation,  and  as  that  salvation  depends,  as  the  New- 
Testament  tells  us,  on  man's  knowledge  of,  and  belief  in  the  person 
called  Jesus  Christ,  it  necessarily  follows  from  our  belief  in  the 
goodness  and  justice  of  God,  and  our  knowledge  of  his  Almighty 


6$  AK    EXAMINATION    OF    THE    PASSAGES 

power  and  wisdom,  as  demonstrated  in  thecreation,  that  ALL  i  HIS 
if  true,  would  be  made  known  (o  all  parts  of  the  world,  in  as  little 
time,  at  least,  as  was  employed  in  making  the  World.  To  sup 
pose  the  Almighty,  would  pay  greater  regard  and  attention  to  the 
creation  and  organization  of  inanimate  matter,  than  he  would  to 
the  salvation  of  innumerable  millions  of  souls,  which  himself  had 
created,  "  as  the  image  ofhimslj"  is  to  offer  an  insult  to  his  goodness 

and  his  justice. 

\ 

Now  observe  Reader,  how  the  promulgation,  of  this  pretended 
Salvation  by  a  knowledge  of,  and  a  belief  in  Jesus  Christ  went  op 
compared  with  the  work  of  creation. 

In  the  first  place,  it  took  longer  time  to  make  the  child 
than  to  make  the  world,  for  nine  months  were  passed  a- 
way  and  totally  lost,  in  a  state  of  pregnancy  ;  which  is  more 
than  forty  times  longer  time,  than  God  employed  in  making  the 
world,  according  to  the  bible  account.  Secondly  ;  several  years 
of  Christ's  life  were  lost  in  a  state  of  human  infancy.  But  the 
universe  was  in  maturity  the  moment  it  existed.  Thirdly  ;  Christ, 
as  Luke  asserts,  was  thirty  years  old  before  he  began  to  preach 
what  they  call  his  mission.  Millions  of  souls  died  in  the  mean 
time  without  knowing  it.  Fourthly  ;  it  was  above  three  hundred 
years  from  that  time  before  the  book  called  the  New  Testament 
was  compiled  into  a  written  copy,  before  which  time  there  were 
no  such  book.  Fifthly  ;  it  was  above  a  thousand  years  after  that, 
Before  it  could  be  circulated  ;  because  neither  Jesus  nor  his  apostles 
had  knowledge  of,  or  were  inspired  with,  the  art  of  printing  : 
and  consequently,  as  the  means  for  making  it  universally  known 
did  not  exist,  the  means  W3re  not  equal  to  the  end,  and  therefore 
it  is  not  the  work  of  God. 

I  will  here  subjoin  the  nineteenth  Psalm,  which  is  truly  deistical, 
to  shew  how  universally  and  instantaneously  the  works  of  God 
make  themselves  known,  compared  with  this  pretended  salvation 
by  Jesus  Christ. 


1»    THE    NEW    TESTAMENT.  6^ 

Psalm  19th.  «  The  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God,  and 
"  the  firmament  sheweth  his  handy-work — Day  unto  day  uttereth 
"  speech,  and  night  unto  night  sheweth  knowledge- — There  is 
"  no  speech  nor  language  where  their  voice  is  not  heard — Their 
"  line  is  gone  out  through  all  the  earth,  and  their  words  to  the 
"end  of  the  world.  In  them  hath  he  set  a  chamber  for  the  Sun. 
"  Which  is  as  a  bride-groom  coming  out  of  his  chamber,  and 
"  rejoiceth  as  a  strong  man  to  run  a  race — his  going  forth  is 
"  from  the  end  of  the  heaven,  and  his  circuit  unto  the  ends  of  it, 
"  and  there  is  nothing  hid  from  the  heat  thereof." 

Now  had  the  news  of  salvation  by  Jesus  Cnrist  been  inscribed 
on  the  face  of  the  Sun  and  the  Moon,  in  characters  that  all  nations 
would  have  understood,  the  whole  earth  had  known  it  in  twenty- 
four  hours,  and  all  nations  would  have  believed  it ;  whereas, 
though  it  is  now  almost  two  thousand  years  since,  as  they  tell 
us,  Christ  came  upon  earth,  not  a  twentieth  part  of  the  people 
of  the  earth  know  any  thing  of  it,  and  among  those  who  do,  the 
wiser  part  do'  not  believe  it. 

I  have  now  reader,  gone  through  all  the  passages  called 
prophecies  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  shewn  there  is  no  such  thing. 

I  have  examined  the  story  told  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  compared 
the  several  circumstances  of  it  with  that  revelation,  which,  as 
Middleton  wisely  says,  God  has  made  to  us  of  his  Power  and 
Wisdom  in  the  structure  of  the  universe,  and  by  which  every 
thing  ascribed  to  him  is  to  be  tried.  The  result  is,  that  the  story 
of  Christ  has  not  one  trait,  either  in  its  character,  or  in  the  means 
employed,  that  bears  the  least  resemblance  to  the  power  and 
wisdom  of  God,  as  demonstrated  in  the  creation  of  the  universe. 
All  the  means  are  human  means,  slow,  uncertain  and  inadequate 
to  the  accomplishment  of  the  end  proposed,  and  therefore  the 
whole  is  a  fabulous  invention,  and  undeserving  of  credit. 


62  AN    EXAMINATION    OF    THt    r*a.»Ao«~    v*.^. 

The  priests  of  the  present  day  profess  to  believe  it.  They 
gain  their  living  by  it,  and  they  exclaim  against  something  they 
call  infidelity.  I  will  define  what  it  is.  HE  THAT  BELIEVES 

»N    THE    STORY  OF  CHRIST  IS    AN  INFIDEL  TO   GoD. 

THOMAS  PAINE. 


My  Private  Thoughts  of  a  Future 
State. 

I  HAVE  said  in  the  first  part  of  the  Age  of  Reason,  that  <f  I 
hope  for  happiness  after  this  life."  This  hope  is  comfortable  to  me, 
and  I  presume  not  to  go  beyond  the  comfortable  idea  of  hope., 
with  respect  to  a  future  state. 

I  consider  myself  in  the  hands  of  my  creator,  and  that  he  will 
dispose  of  me  after  this  life,  consistently  with  his  justice  and  good 
ness.  I  leave  all  these  matters  to  him  as  my  creator  and  friend, 
and  I  hold  it  to  be  presumption  in  man  to  make  an  article  of  faith 
as  to  what  the  creator  will  do  with  us  hereafter. 

I  do  not  believe  because  a  man  and  a  woman  make  a  child, 
that  it  imposes  on  the  creator,  the  unavoidable  obligation  of  keep- 
ing  the  being  so  made  in  eternal  existance  hereafter.  It  is  in  his 
power  to  do  so,  or  not  to  do  so,  and  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  de 
cide  which  he  will  do. 

The  book  called  the  New  Testament,  which  I  hold  to  be  fa 
bulous,  and  have  shewn  to  be  false,  gives  an  account  in  the  25th 
chapter  of  Matthew,  of  what  is  there  called  the  last  day,  or  the  day 
of  judgment.  The  whole  world  according  to  that  account  is  dL 
vided  into  two  parts,  the  righteous  and  the  unrighteous,  figurative 
ly  called  the  sheep  and  the  goats.  They  are  then  to  receive  their 
sentence.  To  the  one,  figuratively  called  the  sheep,  it  says,  "come 
ve  blessed  of  my  father  inherit  the  kingdom  prepared  for  you  from 


APPENDIX. 

the  foundation  of  the  world."  To  the  other  figuratively  called  the 
Goats,  it  says,  "  Depart  from  me  yet  cursed  into  ever  lusting  fire 
prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels." 

Now  the  case  is,  the  world  cannot  be  thus  divided — the  moral 
world,  like  the  physical  world,  is  composed  of  numerous  degrees 
•f  character,  running  imperceptibly  one  into  the  other,  in  such  a 
manner  that  no  fixed  point  of  division  can  be  found  in  either.  That 
point  is  no  where,  or  is  every  where.  The  whole  world  might 
be  divided  into  two  parts  numerically,  but  not  as  to  moral  charac 
ter;  and  therefore  the  metaphor  of  dividing  them,  as  sheep  and 
goats  can  be  divided,  whose  difference  is  marked  by  their  external 
figure,  is  absurd.  All  sheep  are  still  sheep ;  all  goats  are  still  goats ; 
it  is  their  physical  nature  to  be  so.  But  one  part  of  the  world  are? 
not  all  good  alike,  nor  the  other  part  all  wicked  alike.  There  are 
some  exceedingly  good;  others  exceedingly  wicked.  There  is 
another  description  of  men  who  cannot  be  ranked  with  either  the 
one  or  the  other — they  belong  neither  to  the  sheep  nor  the  goats; 
and  theie  is  still  another  description  of  them,  who  are  so  very  in 
significant  both  in  character  and  conduct  as  not  to  be  worth  the 
trouble  of  damning  or  saving,  or  of  raising  from  the  dead. 

My  own  opinion  is,  that  those  whose  lives  have  been  spent  in 
doing  good,  and  endeavouring  to  make  thtir  fellow  mortals  happy, 
for  this  is  the  only  way  in  which  we  can  serve  God,  wilt  be  happy 
hereafter ;  and  that  the  very  Wicked  will  meet  with  some  punish, 
ment.  But  those  who  are  neither  good  nor  bad,  or  are  too  insig 
nificant  for  notice,  will  be  dropt  entirely.  This  is  my  opinion.  It 
is  consistent  with  my  idea  of  God's  justice,  and  with  the  reason 
that  God  has  given  me,  and  I  gratefully  know  he  has  given  me  a 

large  share  of  that  divine  gift. 

THOMAS  PAINE 


